


. '\ N ' \w\vwX 









































QUITE A PET 













LITTLE NEIGHBORS 


AT ELMRIDGE. 



ELLA RODMAN CHURCH', 

\ l 

Author of “Birds and their Ways,” “Flyers and Crawlers,” 
“ Flower-Talks at Elmridge,” etc. 



/ v> v c ~ 

„ JAN 20 1888 6') 
“2 00 / 


PHILADELPHIA : 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, 

1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 


1 \ % 





COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

3 / ‘/ 06 ~ 


Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers , Philada. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I. 

PACK 

Oni.y a Mouse 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Country Cousins: Field-Mouse, Harvest-Mouse and 
Dormouse 35 

CHAPTER III. 

With Wings : the Bats 52 

CHAPTER IV. 

Rats 69 

% 

CHAPTER V. 

What Comes After : Cats 97 

CHAPTER VI. 

Squirrels 140 

. CHAPTER VII. 

Some Mound-Builders: Moles 173 


5 


6 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGB 

A Tiny Relation: the Shrew 189 

CHAPTER IX. 

Hands Off ! the Hedgehog 203 

CHAPTER X. 

About Foxes 216 

CHAPTER XI. 

More Burrowers : Rabbits 235 

CHAPTER XII. 

No Beauty: the Toad 256 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Frogs 269 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A Queer Little Neighbor : the Newt 281 

CHAPTER XV. 

In the Family : the Lizard 292 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Without any Feet: the Bi.indworm and Snakes . . 321 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Slow and Sure: Turtles and Tortoises 341 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGB 

Quite a Pet Frontispiece. 

Why Kill Me? 9 

In a Hurry 11 

A Slippery Character 17 

A Cunning Mouse 27 

Short-tailed Field-Mouse 36 

Mousie at Dinner 37 

Harvest-Mouse and Nest 43 

Dormouse 48 

Long-eared Bat 56 

Bat after iiis Supper . . • 57 

Flying-Fox in Flight 63 

Spectre Vampire of Brazil 67 

A Rat Family 70 

Caught in a Trap 77 

Rats in Costume 83 

Puss at School 96 

Daisy 99 

“The Mouse Destroy’d by my Pursuit” ....... no 

On the Watch 114 

A Family Scene 117 

Can this be Rose? 125 

Squirrels * 4 ° 

Chipping-Squirrel, or Chipmunk 145 

Gray Squirrel and Acorn 150 

The Squirrels and the Sunflower 157 

A Discussion (Tailpiece) 17 2 

Initial l 73 


8 ILL US TEA TIONS. 

PAGB 

The Mole 176 

Mole-Hill Uncovered 179 

The Water-shrew 190 

The Mole-cricket 196 

The Hedgehog 204 

The American Fox 217 

Ready for Supper 221 

The Arctic Fox 226 

Sour Grapes . . 231 

The Syrian Fox 233 

Pet Rabbits 235 

Wild Rabbits 239 

Young Rabbits and Guinea pig 243 

At Home 250 

The Common Toad 257 

The Frog 269 

Development of the Frog 271 

The Frog at Home ... 274 

Cooling Off 280 

The Newt, or Water-Salamander 283 

Ocellated Lizard 293 

Green Lizard 298 

The Chameleon 306 

The American Chameleon 309 

A Duel between Lizard and Scorpion 315 

Head of Crocodile 316 

The Crocodile 317 

The Alligator of the United States 319 

The Blindworm 322 

The Rattlesnake 335 

The Cobra . . 337 

Paul and the Viper *. 340 

Fresh-Water Turtles 342 

The Green Turtle 345 


Little Neighbors at Elmridge. 


CHAPTER I. 


ONLY A MOUSE. 

I T was a rainy day at Elmridge, and the 
weather seemed to have made every one 
industrious. Clara 
and Edith were put- 
ting their baby-house 
and all their posses- 
sions in perfect order 
in the large, pleasant 
room which had once 
been the hospital — 
for it was too early 
in the season yet to 
go to housekeeping 
at Hemlock Lodge — 

Jane was very busy arranging the drawers 
in the closet close by, and Miss Harson 



“WHY KILL ME?” 


10 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

was writing letters in her room. Malcolm 
had gone off to the greenhouse to watch 
John, who was potting plants ; and, as 
every one was occupied, the house seem- 
ed wonderfully quiet and peaceful. 

Suddenly there came a shrill scream from 
the closet, and Jane bounded into the room 
declaring that “ she was all of a tremble 
with fright.” At this Clara and Edith 
screamed too, and Miss Harson ran to the 
rescue, pen in hand, almost expecting to 
encounter a robber or a mad dog. Noth- 
ing was to be seen, however, and the 
young lady asked rather sternly, 

“What is the matter?” 

“ Oh, miss,” gasped Jane, “ something — I 
do believe it was a mouse — jumped right 
out of the drawer while I was sorting the 
things.” 

“There he is now,” screamed Clara, 
“ running across the end of the room.” 

There was the flash of a little tail, and 
Mousie was gone no one knew where. 
But he might have been a tiger, to judge 
by the dismay he created in the peaceful 
circle ; and Edith huddled close to her 


ONL Y A MOUSE. 


I 


sister for protection from this dangerous 
monster. 

Jane seemed to have lost her wits alto- 
gether; and when Miss Harson ordered 
her to bring up the kitchen mouse-trap, 



IN A HURRY. 


she scarcely knew which way to turn. She 
went down stairs, and after being scolded 
by Kitty for her silliness returned with the 
trap. It was placed as near as possible to 
the spot where the mouse had disappeared, 
and, having a very tempting piece of cheese 
inside, it was not long before a “click!” 
was heard, and one of the prettiest and 
plumpest of mice, with fur of delicate gray, 
was caught there, and quite dead. Miss 
Harson gently took it from its prison and 
called Jane and the children to look at it. 

Clara and Edith regarded it soberly, and 
rather sorrowfully pronounced it a pretty 
little thing. 


12 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“ It does not look like a very evil beast, 
then ?” asked their governess. — “Why 
should you scream at anything so small 
and harmless as a mouse, Jane?” 

The girl looked rather foolish as she 
replied, 

“ Why, they come at you so sudden, and 
I always jump up on a chair if there’s time.” 

“Then you take a great deal of useless 
trouble,” said the young lady. “And, as to 
their coming at you, you may be very sure 
that they much prefer running away from 
you. A mouse is one of the most timid 
creatures living; the least noise frightens 
it, and it could not possibly do you any 
harm.” 

“ Couldn’t it bite ?” asked Edith, glancing 
at the sharp little teeth, which were just 
visible. 

“ I have never yet heard of a mouse 
biting any one,” was the reply. “ It uses 
its teeth to gnaw wood and other hard 
substances, and it frequently bites linen 
and cotton clothing — perhaps for the sake 
of the starch, which is the reason that 
I had the trap set for this pretty little fel- 


ONLY A MOUSE. 


13 


low. — You can take it down stairs, Jane, 
trap and all, as I suppose you are not 
afraid of it now.” 

Jane brought the whisk-broom and dust- 
pan with which she had been cleaning out 
the drawers, and with these implements took 
up the little dead animal in what Kitty would 
have called a very gingerly way. She evi- 
dently did not intend to touch it, and had 
she done so accidentally there would doubt- 
less have been a fresh scream. 

“ So you have been having a rhinoceros 
up here, have you ?” said Malcolm, coming 
in just after Jane had gone down stairs to 
be laughed at by Kitty and Thomas. “Is 
the dreadful beast killed ? Because, if he 
isn’t, I shall be afraid to stay. How many 
of you are alive ?” 

The sisters looked very much ashamed, 
and Miss Harson kindly put an arm around 
each of the little girls. 

“That will do, Malcolm,” said she. “ You 
probably know as well as we do that the 
cause of the disturbance was a mouse which 
Jane saw and screamed at, and then, without 
seeing the mouse, Clara and Edith scream- 


14 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

ed because she did. Some people scream 
at a great many harmless things from sheer 
ignorance, and I think that a better acquaint- 
ance with some of our little neighbors will 
do us all a great deal of good.” 

What could Miss Harson mean ? They 
certainly had no near neighbors at Elm- 
ridge, and she was not in the habit of en- 
couraging them to go in quest of other 
children. 

“O — h !” said Malcolm, looking very 
wise ; “ I guess the little neighbors we’re to 
get acquainted with go on four legs. Don’t 
they, Miss Harson ? I know lots of ’em 
now, but I’d like to hear you tell about 
’em as you did about the birds and insects 
and all the seashore things.” 

“Yes, indeed!” chimed in the little girls. 
“ Will you, Miss Harson ?” 

“ That is what I am thinking about,” re- 
plied their governess, smilingly, “ but we 
shall have to begin with mice, as they are 
the smallest members of the family of 
quadrupeds.” 

“Well,” was the satisfied reply, “we like 
to hear about everything that you tell us 


ONLY A MOUSE. 1 5 

about. It always seems better than to read 
it out of a book.” 

“ One reason of that is that you would 
have to hunt it up out of a great many 
books, as I do, and you would not know 
where to look. But I will promise to have 
something ready for you this evening.” 

“ Can Jane come too ?” asked Edith as 
the girl returned to her work. 

“ She can if she likes,” replied the young 
lady; “ she will be quite welcome. — Would 
you like to hear something about mice, Jane, 
and how they live ?” 

Jane bashfully admitted that she would, 
as “she mightn’t be so frightened of ’em 
then ;” and so it was settled that Jane was 
to join the party in the schoolroom after 
dinner. 

“I can’t see how anybody finds out 
about mice,” said Malcolm, when the little 
group were gathered before the cheerful 
fire, “for they’re such skittish things and 
always run away if you so much as look 
at ’em.” 

“ They do not always run away,” replied 


1 6 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

Miss Harson, “and their conduct depends 
very much on that of the persons whom 
they meet. But we will come to that in 
time, when I shall have some stories to 
tell you about pet mice.” 

“ La !” exclaimed Jane, involuntarily; and 
then she looked so startled to think she 
had spoken out in this way that the chil- 
dren were very much amused. 

“A live mouse,” continued the young 
lady, “ is generally a very slippery charac- 
ter and does not stand still long to be 
looked at, but dead mice are easily exam- 
ined, and from our little prisoner of this 
morning — who was a large specimen of 
his class — we could see that they are very 
tiny animals with plump bodies covered 
with soft gray fur that is often quite dark, 
long narrow tails, four cunning little paws 
and pointed faces with the mouth on the 
under side. Their soft black eyes are very 
pretty, and their ears stand up in quite a 
knowing fashion. They look as if they were 
always watching and listening, as they 
probably are. They belong to the order 
Rodentia — which means ‘gnawers’ — and 


ONLY A MOUSE. 


1 7 



their sharp little teeth are constantly at 
work.” 

“ And don’t they make a racket at night!” 
2 


A SLIPPERY CHARACTER. 


1 3 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

exclaimed Malcolm. “ I hear ’em some- 
times in the wall, and they gnaw, gnaw, 
gnaw, and then they scamper up and down 
and seem to be tumbling over one an- 
other.” 

“ Once — ” began Jane, and then she 
'stopped suddenly in great confusion. 

“Tell us your experience of mice, Jane,” 
said Miss Harson, kindly, “ for we wish to 
learn all that we can about them.” 

“Well,” continued the girl, who began to 
feel that she had not much to tell, “ me and 
Matilda Ann — that’s my sister — was in bed 
one night, when a mouse ran right over her 
face. Matilda Ann screeched and screech- 
ed, and — ” 

“ What became of the mouse ?” asked 
the young lady, as Jane paused, not know- 
ing what to say next. 

“ Why, it scampered off, miss, and ran 
into its hole ; we could see it in the moon- 
light.” 

o 

“ And it didn’t hurt your sister, did it, in 
running over her face?” 

“N — no — o, ma’am.” 

“ Then you see that mice are not at all 


ONLY A MOUSE. 


19 


dangerous even when they get on people, 
which they don’t often do. This poor 
mouse had probably lost his way, and I 
have no doubt that he quaked with fright 
from the dreadful screams for a long time 
after he reached his hole in safety.” 

This was putting the matter in such an 
entirely new light that Jane scarcely knew 
which way to look. She was learning, 
however, as Miss Harson hoped she would, 
that it is extremely silly to be afraid of 
weak, harmless creatures ; nor was the les- 
son lost on Clara and Edith. As Malcolm 
never had been afraid of mice, he thought 
himself extremely brave. 

“ Don’t they make lots of trouble eating 
things ?” asked Clara. 

“They do indeed,” replied her governess, 
“ and that is why such constant warfare is 
waged against the little * rodents.’ Besides 
the mischief they do in a house by gnaw- 
ing, they have a strong liking for dainty 
food, and nothing of this kind is safe from 
their attacks if left exposed. They will 
also devour things which we should con- 
sider anything but dainty eating, and this 


20 LITTLE NEIGHBORS A T ELMRIDGE. 

often causes great inconvenience, and even 
danger. Mice have been known to set a 
house on fire, and not very long ago a boy 
who slept in the attic of a country-house 
was awakened in the night by a burning 
smell and a feeling of being suffocated. 
He called as loud as he was able ; and 
when the master of the house ran up to 
see what was the matter, he found the 
attic full of smoke and the boy’s trousers 
— which were hung on the rafters — in a 
blaze. The flames were fast spreading to 
the roof, and the boy was almost suffocated. 
In one of his pockets there were a piece of 
candy and some matches, and the mice, 
which were plentiful, had probably crawled 
into the pocket after the candy and set off 
the matches. They do not object to the 
latter, however, as they will eat the phos- 
phorus from the ends, but they seem to 
prefer candy.” 

“ Why, that’s awful, Miss Harson,” ex- 
claimed Malcolm, “ for mice might set us 
all on fire. Do let us put traps for ’em 
in every room in the house.” 

“ I hope you don’t propose carrying 


ONL Y A MOUSE. 


21 


matches and candy in your pocket, do 
you?” asked the young lady, “as I should 
not approve of your keeping either of 
those articles in such a place. If you did, 
you would be far more to blame for a fire 
than the mice would be.” 

Malcolm laughed and said, “All right,” 
while Jane was beginning to see that two- 
legged animals were really at the bottom 
of much of the mischief for which four-leg- 
ged ones were punished. 

“What do mice like best to eat?” asked 
Edie. 

“ They are thought, dear, to have a par- 
ticular weakness for cheese,” was the reply, 
“and the odor of it is pretty sure to entice 
them into a trap. But I think they like very 
much the same things we do, and they will 
burrow with great satisfaction in a rich 
cake, eating their way in and out. They 
like seeds, too, and grain of all kinds, and 
they are very destructive in this way. Be- 
sides this, they nibble and tear up a great 
many things which they do not care to eat 
for material with which to make their nests.” 

“ Oh !” exclaimed Clara. “ Do they real- 


22 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

ly have nests, Miss Harson, like birds ? I 
thought they just lived in holes.” 

“ The nests are not like birds’ nests, dear, 
for they are never found in trees, and they 
are arranged differently. This is what Homes 
without Hands says of them : ‘ There seems 
to be hardly any place in which a mouse 
will not establish itself, and scarcely any 
materials of which it will not make its nest. 
Hay, leaves, straw bitten into suitable 
lengths, roots and dried herbage are the 
usual materials employed by this animal 
when it is in the country. When it be- 
comes a town mouse and lives in houses, 
it accommodates itself to circumstances, 
and is never in want of a situation for a 
nest or of materials wherewithal to make 
a comfortable house. It will use up old 
rags, tow, bits of rejected cord, paper, and 
any such materials as can be found strag- 
gling about a house ; and if it can find no 
fragments, it helps itself very unceremo- 
niously to, and cuts to pieces, books, news- 
papers, curtains or garments.’” 

“That’s bad !” said Jane, who seemed re- 
joiced to hear of something which was not 


ONL V A MOUSE. 


23 


to the mouse’s credit; it was rather sudden 
to have it turned into an innocent little per- 
secuted creature. 

“Very bad,” replied Miss Harson, “for 
the people whose things are destroyed; but 
the mouse is not to blame, as it follows an 
innocent instinct in thinking only of its nest. 
Its head is too small to carry more than one 
idea at once, and even much larger heads 
cannot seem to do that.” 

Jane’s head, which was good at forget- 
ting, hung down at this, and she looked 
very red and foolish. She began to think, 
as Kitty had often told her, that “people who 
live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” 

“ These nests,” continued the young lady, 
“are sometimes perfect curiosities, and are 
found in the funniest imaginable places. In 
one case a bird had built a nest upon a 
shrub in a garden and placed its home 
near the ground. A mouse of original 
genius saw the nest and perceived its 
value. Accordingly, she built her own 
nest immediately below that of the bird, 
so that she and her young ones were shel- 
tered as by a roof. So closely had she fix- 


24 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

ed her habitation that as her young ran in 
and out of their home their bodies pressed 
against the floor of the bird’s nest above 

them. No less than six young mice were 
discovered in this ingenious nest.’ ” 

“ Oh !” exclaimed the children ; “ how 
cunning! If we could only find a mouse’s 
nest with some little ones in it !” 

“You would not disturb it, I hope,” re- 
plied their governess, “any sooner than 
you would a bird’s nest, for the cruelty 
would be just the same. But I know that 
I can always trust my children to do what 
is right.” 

“We would only look at it, dear Miss 
Harson,” said both little girls together ; 
“it must be so sweet to see a bunch of 
tiny little mice with soft gray fur.” 

“ I am afraid you would be disappointed, 

then, in young mice, for they are pink at 
first instead of being gray, and have no 
fur at all. Very funny-looking little things 
they are, and blind, like kittens.” 

What astonished faces there were in 
that pleasant schoolroom when Miss Har- 
son uttered these words. The little girls 


ONLY A MOUSE. 


25 


were disappointed and did not at all like 
the idea of pink, naked-looking little mice, 
while Jane’s mouth seemed likely to stay in 
the form of a round O. 

“I am sorry,” continued the young lady, 
smilingly, “ but I do not think it can be help- 
ed. The best I can do for you is to tell you 
of some more queer nests. The same per- 
son who wrote about the other one says : 
‘ Early in March we set a hen, and, as her 
nest was a basket, a sack was placed under 
and around it, so as to keep in the heat. 
When the hen was set, she was in good 
feather, wearing an ample tail ; but as the 
three weeks went on her tail seemed much 
broken, assumed a dilapidated appearance 
and finally became a mere stump. This 
excited notice and surprise, as there was 
nothing near her against which she was 
likely to spoil her tail. When the chick- 
ens were hatched and they and their 
mother were taken to a fresh nest, and the 
old one removed, it was found that a mouse 
had constructed a beautiful nest under the 
basket. The body of the nest was made of 
tow scraped from the sack, and of chopped 


26 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

or gnawed hay from the hen’s nest, while 
the lining was made of the feathers of her 
tail, which had evidently been removed a 
small bit at a time until all the feathers 
were reduced to stumps, showing marks 
of the mouse’s teeth. We should have 
liked to have heard the hen’s remarks on 
the transaction when the mouse was nib- 
bling her tail.’ ” 

There was a great deal of laughter at 
this style of nest-building, and Malcolm was 
especially amused ; but little Edith exclaim- 
ed indignantly, 

“ What a wicked mouse ! And how she 
must have hurt the poor hen, who couldn’t 
leave her eggs to stop her !” 

“No, dear,” replied her governess; “I 
do not believe that it really hurt the hen 
to nibble off her tail-feathers, and the mouse 
was providing for her children’s comfort 
probably without even knowing that the 
feathers belonged to anything alive. Not 
that it would have made any difference if she 
had known, so long as she could get at them. 
But we must admire the ingenuity of this 
very small animal. She was even brighter 


MOUSE 


* 





28 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

than the mouse who built her home in the 
garden under the bird’s nest, for, besides 
such elegant material close at hand, there 
was all the warmth from the hen’s body, 
which was a great advantage for her del- 
icate babies.” 

It was decided that the saucy mouse that 
nibbled off the hen’s tail to line her nest 
was a very praiseworthy little mother, and 
the children were now so much interested in 
queer nests that they begged for some more 

“One mouse,” said Miss Harson, “went 
to housekeeping in an empty bottle which 
lay flat on a shelf, and this little midget had 
the good sense to leave a round hole in her 
nest directly below the mouth of the bottle, 
so that it was very easy to get in and out. 
Another took a fancy to a loaf of fresh 
bread — probably because it was warm and 
soft — and the next day some of the family 
noticed a hole in the loaf. They cut it 
open, and there was Mrs. Mouse in a nest 
made of paper, with nine young mice around 
her. She had torn a copybook into fine 
pieces and arranged them in the shape of 
a nest.” 


ONLY A MOUSE. 


2 9 


This seemed to be the funniest yet, go- 
ing to housekeeping in a loaf of bread, and 
such peals of merry laughter resounded 
through the room that Mr. Kyle came to 
the doorway to ask what game amused them 
so much. 

“ Oh, papa, we are learning about our 
little neighbors, and Miss Harson is telling 
us such funny things !” 

Miss Harson laughingly explained, and 
Mr. Kyle approved highly of the plan, and 
said that he would tell them about a tame 
mouse in an Austrian prison. 

“It is not at all funny,” said he, “but it 
shows how companionable even a mouse 
can be made by kindness. Baron von 
Trenck, a Prussian officer, had been in 
prison for a long time, and for two years 
he had a pet mouse which was a great com- 
fort to him in that dreary place. He had 
made it so tame that it would play with 
him like a kitten, and even ate out of his 
mouth. One night it was so noisy in its 
skippings about the cell that the sentinels 
outside heard it and reported to the officer 
of the guard, who in his turn informed the 

o 7 


30 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

commandant that something extraordinary 
was going on in the prison. Early in the 
morning came the town-major with lock- 
smiths and masons, and they strictly exam- 
ined the floor, the walls, the prisoner’s 
chains and his whole body, for fear that 
he was trying to escape. Not finding any- 
thing out of the way, they asked the baron 
what caused the commotion of the evening 
before, and he told them about the mouse. 
Being requested to call his pet, he whistled, 
and the little animal immediately appeared 
and jumped upon his shoulder. He beg- 
ged that its life might be spared, and that he 
might not be deprived of his one compan- 
ion ; but the officer of the guard carried it 
away with him, promising to give it to a lady 
who would take good care of it. When 
he turned it loose in his room, the mouse 
soon disappeared and hid itself in a hole. 
When the prisoner was visited at the usual 
hour and the officers were just going away, 
the little animal darted in and climbed up 
his friend’s legs, seated itself on his shoul- 
der and played a thousand tricks to express, 
the joy it felt at seeing him again. Every 


ONL V A MOUSE. 


31 

one was astonished and wished to have the 
wonderful mouse. To end the dispute over 
it, the major took possession of it and car- 
ried it home to his wife. The lady had a 
light cage made for her prize, that it should 
not run away; but the poor animal seemed 
to be overcome with grief at its change of 
quarters, and refused to eat. A few days 
later it was found dead.” 

“Wasn’t that just hateful?” exclaimed 
Malcolm, while his sisters looked as if they 
thought all that he was saying. “Those 
horrid men ought to have been put in 
prison themselves for killing such a cun- 
ning little mouse and making the poor 
baron so miserable. I wish they’d been 
hung.” 

“Rather high-handed justice, my son,” 
said his father, quietly, “ but the conduct of 
the officers was certainly inexcusable in its 
selfish thoughtlessness. Let us see to it 
that we always consider the feelings of 
others.” 

With these words Mr. Kyle left them, 
and the blaze of Malcolm’s excitement was 
considerably cooled. He felt quite sure 


32 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

that he did not always consider the feel- 
ings of others, and therefore it scarcely 
became him to judge so severely. 

“ Papa’s story was very nice, but rather 
too sad,” said Miss Harson, “because that 
particular mouse was so very affectionate 
in its devotion to the poor prisoner. Here 
is a little account of a mouse that came to 
a tragic end because of its love for music, 
but then it was nobody’s pet, and it had 
made itself a great musician. But perhaps 
you did not know that mice are fond of 
music ?” 

The children certainly did not, and it 
seemed very hard to believe that such lit- 
tle creatures could distinguish music from 

o 

any other noise. 

“ Oh yes,” continued their governess ; 
“ they are not only fond of music, but have 
been known to keep time to it. My story 
tells of a music-loving mouse, and goes on 
to say : 

“ ‘ Various ways were tried to get rid of 
Mousie, but she was too smart for them 
all, and nibbled around in her small world 
in high glee over the fact that neither trap 


ONLY A MOUSE. 


33 


nor cat could catch her. But alas for 
Mousie ! It happened with her as with 
so many others in this world : pride got 
the better of prudence. One fine evening 
the lady whom she nightly tormented with 
her sharp teeth had company — a gentleman 
who played the violin beautifully. As the 
friends sat enjoying the music, who should 
steal out of her room but a small mouse 
dressed in gray velvet ? She had sat with 
her bit of tail curled up about her for some 
time, thinking the matter over. “ Ah ! but 
that is too lovely for anything!” she said to 
herself as the soft, sweet strains from the 
violin stole in to her. “Why couldn’t I 
slip out there, where I could see as well 
as hear? I’d risk being caught: I’m too 
quick for anybody to hurt me. Now he is 
playing that lovely tune I’ve danced to so 
many times. Dear me ! I can’t stand that. 

I just know I can dance charmingly, and 
I’m so tired of hopping around in this dark 
room with nobody to see me. I’m going 
out this minute. I’m not in the least afraid 
of being caught;” and out she went. 

“ 1 For a time, all went merrily. Miss 

3 


34 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

Mousie, in her gray velvet, under the 
shadow of a friendly rocking-chair, skipped 
about to the sound of music in a way that 
she imagined was perfectly charming. At 
last, to her great delight, she was discovered 
and exclaimed over. She came out from 
the shadow of the rocking-chair in order to 
give them a better view. How should she 
know they were plotting her ruin ? Too 
late she discovered it. Dizzy with dancing 
and grown reckless with pride, she actually 
whirled between the feet of a man with a 
poker. And that was her last dance.’ ” 

All pitied the giddy young mouse, but 
they did not take her sad story half so 
much to heart as they did that of poor 
Baron’s Trenck’s little favorite. 

“ And now,” added Miss Harson, “ I 
think we have had mouse-stories enough 
for the present, and I hope that Jane has 
learned at least not to be afraid of such 
a harmless little animal.” 

“ I don’t believe I’ll mind ’em at all now,” 
replied the girl as she bade them all good- 
night, “ and I’m sure I’m very much obliged 
to you, miss.” 


CHAPTER II. 


COUNTRY COUSINS: FIELD-MOUSE , HARVEST- 
MOUSE AND DORMOUSE. 

“ T ’M glad that we’re going to have 
some more mice,” said Clara the 
next evening, “ for I like to hear about 
’em. Do any mice live out of doors, Miss 
Harson ?” 

“ Certainly they do, dear. Did I not tell 
you of two nests that were made out of 
doors ? But these really belonged to 
house-mice, while there are species that 
are seen only in the fields and in barns 
and places where grain is stored. The 
common field-mouse is a pretty little creat- 
ure ‘ whose red back, gray belly, short 
ears and blunt nose might be seen daily, 
if human eyes were more accustomed to 
observation.’ These mice are plentiful in 
the fields, especially in damp and marshy 
ones, but they are so small and so nearly 

35 


36 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 


the color of the ground — for ‘ red back ’ 
means only reddish brown — that they are 
seldom seen.” 

“ Don’t people sometimes tread on ’em 
if they’re so little?” asked Edith. 

“ I think not dear,” was the reply, “ for 



SHORT-TAILED FIELD-MOUSE. 

these very small animals seem to have a 
wonderful gift of keeping out of harm’s 
way. They are not so quick in their 
movements as their house-cousins, but 
they glide among the blades of grass in 
a peculiar way of their own. You can see 



MOUSIE AT DINNER 





38 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

from this picture how a field-mouse looks, 
with his little fat body and his short tail.” 

“What a pretty little creature!” was the 
exclamation. “ Doesn’t he look too cun- 
ning nibbling that wheat ?” 

“ The farmer whose grain he is munch- 
ing,” said Miss Harson, laughing, “does 
not in the least admire him. He is a very 
destructive little animal, though it must be 
acknowledged that he is pretty, and he is 
much improved by having a round instead 
of a pointed nose, like his larger cousin. 
His tail looks as if a piece of it had been 
cut off, and he is generally squatted in a 
little heap, nibbling away at something eat- 
able. Field-mice are very fond of the young 
shoots of grain and plants, and will even 
strip young trees of their tender bark. It 
is no wonder, therefore, that they are not 
generally beloved, in spite of their ‘ cunning’ 
looks and ways. Whenever it is possible to 
get them, they are destroyed.” 

“ Do they make nests in the grass,” 
asked Malcolm, “or do they live under 
ground ?” 

“ Both,” was the reply, “ for the little 


COUNTRY COUSINS. 39 

field-mouse is not satisfied without a sum- 
mer and a winter residence. ‘ The sum- 
mer nest is built in a little hollow on the 
surface of the earth, just concealed at the 
bottom of the stems of grass. If you pull 
it out, it looks like a lump of flax, being 
composed of numerous small pieces of 
grass nibbled to a fine texture with care 
by the parent-animals.’ One very queer 
thing about this nest is that there is no 
opening to it ; the shape is very much like 
a ball, and it is hollow, without a sign of 
any doorway.” 

“ That’s very funny,” said Clara, “ How 
can the mice ever get in and out of such a 
nest as that ?” 

“ If we understood their language,” re- 
plied her governess, “ or could watch them 
long enough, we might find out, but as it is 
I am afraid that we never shall. The win- 
ter nest is entered through a hole that ex- 
tends only a few inches from the top and 
leads to a round nest at the other end. 
There is a cellar, besides, where winter 
provisions are stored, and among them 
there is sure to be a quantity of cherry- 


40 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

stones. Altogether, the field-mouse pro- 
vides very comfortably for itself and its 
family. Each nest will have from five to 
seven little ones in it. When the grass 
or the grain is cut, the summer nest will 
often be laid bare, but the parents stay to 
defend their young, and try to hide the nest 
again by drawing the nearest grasses and 
plants around it. It is described as a very 
touching sight to see the anxiety of these 
tiny creatures when the mower’s scythe has 
swept away their shade-trees and exposed 
their little cottage to the public gaze. They 
will even allow themselves to be killed 
rather than desert their children.” 

“ It seems so cruel to kill the dear little 
things,” said Edith. 

“Yet it would not do to let them multi- 
ply so as to eat up all the crops, and that is 
just what would happen if field-mice were 
never killed.” 

“ Miss Harson,” asked Malcolm, “what 
do they want of cherry-stones ? They 
can’t eat them, can they ?” 

“ Most certainly they can ; their sharp 
little teeth are equal to almost any task.” 


COUNTRY COUSINS. 


41 


“ But how do they get ’em ?” asked Clara. 
“ Do they climb cherry trees and nibble off 
the cherries ?” 

“ Oh no, dear ; they have an easier way 
than that. The birds help them, for it is 
these feathered thieves who steal the cher- 
ries, and they leave the stones sticking to 
the stems or drop them on the ground. 
They all reach the ground in the end, ‘ so 
that the mouse who is fortunate enough to 
live in a cherry-growing district is sure of 
a winter stock of food. Several hundred 
cherry-stones are sometimes placed in a 
single storehouse, affording sustenance to 
several mice.’ ” 

“ I suppose a mouse will put one in 
his mouth and crack it open ?” said Mal- 
colm. 

“ No,” replied his governess ; “ he works 
in quite a different way. He nibbles off 
one end of the stone to make a little hole, 
and then contrives to get out all the meat 
through this small opening.” 

The children thought it would be delight- 
ful to see such a tiny mouse at work on a 
tiny nut, just like a miniature squirrel ; but 


42 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

Miss Harson said that it was not an easy 
matter to get even a glimpse of one of the 
shy little creatures. 

“ It takes its walks abroad,” she contin- 
ued, “ in the evening, on the first approach 
of dusk, and it is then a very enterprising 
little animal, for it does not keep to the 
fields, but climbs up shrubs and plants to 
look for food. It climbs nearly as well as 
a squirrel, its sharp nails hooking them- 
selves into every irregularity of the bark 
and its long finger-like toes clasping round 
the grass- stems and little twigs like the 
paws of a monkey. A hedge in which 
there are plenty of dogroses is a likely 
place for the campagnol — another of his 
names — ‘as the animal is very fond of the 
ripe hips and ascends the shrub in search 
of its daily food. When it reaches the 
branch bending with the scarlet load, the 
mouse runs swiftly and as surefooted as a 
rope-dancer, and carries off a store of the 
fruit, partly for present use and partly for 
a stock of winter food.’ ” 

The field-mouse had proved to be so 
charming that Miss Harson’s little audi- 


HARVEST-MOUSE AND NEST. 








44 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

ence hoped that there were more mice 
to be heard from. 

“Yes,” was the reply; “we must learn 
something about the harvest-mouse, which 
is probably the tiniest creature that goes 
on four legs. It is only about one-sixth 
the weight of the ordinary mouse, and its 
color is chestnut-brown on the outside and 
pure white beneath. It has a long tapering 
tail, like its gigantic relative, and the same 
queer pointed face. It gets its name of 
‘ harvest-mouse ’ from the fact that it is 
always seen at harvest-time, and hundreds 
are then captured at once in barns and 
hayricks.” 

“ Does it eat things too,” asked Clara, 
“like the field-mouse?” 

“ It is not so destructive, because it pre- 
fers flies when they are to be had. Other 
insects, too, are preyed upon by it for food, 
and it leaps very swiftly for the purpose of 
seizing its victims.” 

The tiny, graceful-looking animals were 
much admired, while the little Kyles ex- 
claimed wonderingly over the funny nest, 
that looked like a small haymow. There 


COUNTRY CO USINS. 


45 


seemed to be no place in it in which to 
live and bring up a family. 

“ Our naturalist will tell us something 
about it,” continued Miss Harson, “ and, 
leaving out his large words, I will read you 
what he says : ‘Mice always make very com- 
fortable nests for their young, gathering to- 
gether great quantities of wool, rags, paper, 
hair, moss, feathers, and similar substances, 
and rolling them into a ball-like mass, in 
the middle of which the young are placed. 
I have seen many of these nests, and only 
once have known an exception to the rule, 
when the mouse had made its nest of empty 
and broken nut-shells. The harvest-mouse, 
however, excels them all in the beauty and 
elegance of its house, which not only is 
made with great neatness, but is hung 
above the ground in such a way as to en- 
title it to the name of a true “ pensile ” — 
“hanging” — nest. Generally it is hung to 
several stout grass-stems ; sometimes it is 
fastened to wheat-straws, and one has 
been seen suspended from the head of a 
thistle.’ ” 

The children were getting quite excited 


46 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE . 

over these curious nests, and Malcolm 
promised his sisters that he would find one 
for them to look at before the next harvest 
was over. 

‘“It is a very beautiful structure, being 
made of narrow grasses and woven so 
carefully as to form a hollow globe rather 
larger than a cricket-ball and nearly as 
round. How the little creature manages 
to perform such a difficult piece of work 
as a hollow sphere with thin walls is a 
puzzle. It is another puzzle how the young 
are placed in it and how they are fed. 
The walls are so thin that an object in- 
side the nest can be easily seen from any 
part of the outside : there is no opening 
anywhere ; and when the young are in the 
nest, they are packed so tightly that their 
bodies press against the wall in every direc- 
tion. As it is so loosely woven, the mother 
may be able to push her way between the 
meshes, and so get at her young. 

“ ‘ This nest, which is always at some 
little height, requires a power of climbing 
in the builder. All mice are good climbers, 
being able to scramble up perpendicular 


COUNTRY COUSINS. 


47 


walls if their surfaces are rough, and even 
to lower themselves head downward by 
clinging with the curved claws of their 
hind feet. The joint of the hind foot, too, 
can be turned nearly half round, which 
gives these small animals great freedom 
of movement. The harvest-mouse is even 
better made for climbing than the ordinary 
mouse, for its long and flexible toes can 
grasp the grass-stem as firmly as a mon- 
key’s paw holds a bough, and the long 
slender tail is also used as a support, al- 
though it does not twist as thoroughly as 
that of the monkey and some other ani- 
mals. The airy cradle sometimes has as 
many as eight young mice in it, all packed 
together like herrings in a barrel.’ ” 

Clara and Edith were making plans to 
go on a regular hunt, when summer came, 
after harvest-mice and their nests ; and oh, 
if they should really see one and look right 
through at the cunning baby-mice huddled 
so close together! Miss Harson laughed 
at their excited faces as she said she was 
afraid they would not be good for much 
after such a sight as that. 



48 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“Are the mice all used up yet?” asked 
Malcolm. 

“ Not quite ; there is another member of 
the family, which is quite as much a squir- 


DORMOUSE. 

rel as a mouse. This is the dormouse — a 
pretty little creature dressed in a brown 
coat and a white vest, and with wonder- 
fully large, bright eyes of its own — when 
they are open.” 


COUNTRY COUSINS. 


49 


“ What does it keep ’em shut for, Miss 
Harson ?” asked Edie, in surprise. 

“ For the same reason that we shut ours, 
Pet — to sleep. For the dormouse is one 
of the sleepiest little objects in existence, 
and is seldom awake in the daytime. It 
sleeps all winter, too, and it gets its name 
from the word ‘ dormant,’ which means 
4 sleeping ’ or * unconscious.’ But the one in 
this picture looks remarkably wide awake.” 

“Too cunning for anything,” in the chil- 
dren’s opinion, was the plump little creat- 
ure perched on a twig with one paw laid on 
an acorn. 

“ He is a perfect little ball of brown-and- 
white fur,” said Miss Harson, “and it is no 
wonder that people who keep caged pets 
are fond of selecting these pretty creatures. 
They are generally asleep, though, when it 
is most convenient to play with them, and, 
as some one says, 4 the sight of a round ball 
of brown fur is not particularly amusing.’ 
And here is a picture of his nest.” 

“Why, the nest’s up a tree!” said Mal- 
colm — “’way up, like a bird’s. That doesn’t 
seem like a mouse.” 


4 


50 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“ It is not so far up as it looks,” replied 
his governess, “ for the naturalist whose 
book we have here says that it was in a 
hedge about four feet from the ground, 
placed in the forking of a hazel-branch, the 
smaller twigs forming a kind of palisade 
around it. It was made of grass-blades 
and leaves of trees, and was only six inches 
long and three wide.” 

“ I shouldn’t think it would hold any but 
that very little mouse,” said Clara ; “ there 
is no room for the big one in it.” 

“ It is certainly a very small affair, but 
these little creatures have ways of manag- 
ing that we do not understand. The dor- 
mouse, as we read, is ‘ an admirable nest- 
maker. As it passes the day in sleep, it 
must needs have some retired domicile in 
which it can be hidden from the many ene- 
mies which might attack a sleeping animal. 
The entrance to the nest is so ingeniously 
concealed that to find it is not a very easy 
matter even when the very spot is known, 
and, to show how it is arranged, one of the 
dormice is represented in the act of drawing 
aside the grass-blades that conceal it. The 


COUNTRY COUSINS. 


51 


pendent pieces of grass that are being held 
aside by the little paw are so fixed that 
when released from pressure they spring 
back over the opening and conceal it.’ ” 
“ How very strange !” said Malcolm. 

“ Only another proof,” replied Miss Har- 
son, “ of our heavenly Father’s care for the 
least of his creatures. He has given the 
little dormouse this wonderful instinct by 
which it protects itself against danger, while 
for us there is the beautiful thought: 

“ ‘ God shall charge his angel-legions 

Watch and ward o’er thee to keep.’ ” 


“ Miss Harson,” asked Edith, presently, 
“what does the dormouse eat?” 

“Very much what the squirrel eats,” 
was the reply — “nuts and grain, and such 
things. He has a storehouse near his nest, 
which he fills for spring use before fruits 
and nuts are ripe ; for, as he sleeps during 
the winter, he needs very little food until 
the mild weather wakes him up again. And 
now it is quite time for some little people 
whom I know to turn into dormice — at 
least, until to-morrow morning.” 


CHAPTER III. 


WITH WINGS: THE BATS. 

I T was several days before there was 
another gathering at Elmridge to talk 
about “ little neighbors,” and the children 
were all wondering what little neighbor 
was to be taken up next. Clara felt cer- 
tain it would be a rat, because that was so 
much like a mouse, and Edith wished for a 
squirrel. 

“ One thing I know, Miss Harson,” said 
Malcolm, quite confidently: “there aren’t 
any more mice to talk about.” 

“Did you ever hear of a flittermouse?” 
asked his governess, with a smile. 

“ ‘ A flittermouse ’ !” was repeated, in 
great astonishment. “Is there .such a 
thing?” 

“ There really is, but that is not the name 
by which we know it: we generally call it 
a bat.” 


52 


WITH WINGS. 53 

There was quite a shriek now from the 
little girls : 

“ Oh, Miss Harson, aren’t bats dreadful ? 
And are they mice with wings ? Thomas 
says so.” 

“ No,” was the reply, “ they are not mice 
with wings ; and the bat is not really a 
mouse at all. It looks like one, though. 
In many parts of England the bats are 
called ‘ flittermice,’ and are thought to be 
simply mice with wings. This opinion has 
been formed from the resemblance in the 
general shape — and especially the resem- 
blance of the fur — of the two animals. But 
if we look at the teeth, we find at once that 
those of the bat are sharp and pointed, 
while the teeth of the mouse are of that 
chisel-shaped character found in the rabbit 
and other rodent animals.” 

“ ‘ Rodent ’ ?” repeated Malcolm. “ Oh 
yes, I remember now, Miss Harson : you 
have already told us that ‘rodent’ means 
‘ gnawing.’ ” 

“Yes, and I wish you all to remember 
that. And here 'is a picture that will help 
you to know how a bat really looks, for 


54 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

you may never see one except as it is fly- 
ing with outstretched wings. Only natural- 
ists examine bats very closely, for there is 
a strong prejudice against them, and many 
people will run at the very sight of one.” 

“What a funny little old face!” said Mal- 
colm. “ Do bats really look like that?” 

“And his ears are bigger than his face,” 
said Edith, “and stick up like two flower- 
leaves !” 

“ Look at the two queer little horns on 
one side,” added Clara. 

Their governess was laughing heartily 
by this time, and said that she must ex- 
plain : 

“The bat’s wings are really its hands, 
webbed between the fingers like a duck’s 
foot. But the fingers are very long and 
thin, and the skin, or membrane, between 
them reaches as far as the nails. The 
thumb-joint is left quite free, and with this 
joint and the hooked claw at its end the 
creature can walk, after a fashion. It often 
gets along with the help of a beam or a 
trunk, from which it suspends itself, and 
it is very curious to see it stretching out 


WITH WINGS. 


55 


its wings and feeling about for a conve- 
nient spot on which to fix the hooks. The 
baby-bat is often found enjoying an airing 
by clinging to the body of its mother and 
holding firmly while she flies in search of 
her food.” 

Of course all desired to see such a 
comical sight as this, but, as Miss Harson 
told them, these journeys are made only at 
night, when they could not see even if the 
bats were passing by. 

“ Edie’s idea of the long ears looking like 
flower-petals is rather poetical, but a bat’s 
ears are really quite pretty when they are 
examined. Their texture is very delicate, 
and almost transparent in a strong light, 
while as the animal moves about they are 
constantly in motion, but always gracefully. 
This specimen is known as the long-eared 
bat ; it is said to make a very interesting 
pet. — Your ‘queer little horns,’ Clara, are 
a second pair of ears, that show only on 
one side in the picture — not perfect ears, 
but sharply-pointed membranes that pro- 
tect the openings when the large ears are 
tucked back under the folded wings. This 


56 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

is a favorite habit with our long-eared 
friend. 

“All bats have old-looking faces, and this 
and their mysterious habits have made them 
objects of general dread. People cannot 



LONG-EARED BAT. 


tell exactly what they expect a bat to do to 
them, except to get into their hair, as though 
this were the creature’s chief idea of enjoy- 
ment; but if such a thing ever happened, it 
was probably an accident.” 


WITH WINGS. 57 

“ Do you like bats, Miss Harson ?” ask- 
ed Edith, with great earnestness. 

“ No, dear,” was the reply; “I am ashamed 
to say that I do not, and perhaps I should 
run from a bat as soon as any one. Yet 
they are very harmless, and even useful, 
creatures.” 

“ How can they be useful,” said Mal- 



AFTER HIS SUPPER. 


colm, “ when they are always asleep, ex- 
cept at night?” 

“ They clear the air of swarms of gnats and 
mosquitoes, and other insects which abound 
in summer, and which form the natural food 
of the bat. Many people respect the swal- 
low for this very reason, but ‘ a naturalist 
says that the bat is as useful a creature as 
the swallow, and in the very same way ; for 
when the evening comes on and the swal- 


58 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

low retires to its nest, the bat issues from 
its home and takes up the work just where 
the swallow leaves it, the two creatures 
dividing day and night between them.’ ” 

“ Where is its home ?” asked Clara. 
“ Does it make a nest in a tree, like 
birds ?” 

“No, indeed! A bat’s nest was never 
heard of. It does not take so much trouble ; 
but when it wishes to rest, on the approach 
of daylight it hangs itself up neatly, with 
that convenient thumb-hook, in some lone- 
ly spot — a dark barn or a cavern or a hol- 
low tree — and there it stays, upside down, 
all the livelong day.” 

The children thought this a very uncom- 
fortable way of resting, and wondered that 
the bats did not grow dizzy; but they were 
told that the queer little animals enjoy 
themselves in their own way. 

“ I will read you an account of a tame 
bat,” continued their governess, “which will 
give you a good idea of the creature’s 
strange ways. This bat belonged to a kind- 
hearted naturalist, who captured it and be- 
came very fond of it. 


WITH WINGS. 


59 


“‘Not long ago,’ he says, ‘I received a 
message from a neighboringgrocer request- 
ing me to capture a bat which had flown 
into the shop, and which no one dared 
touch. When I arrived, the creature had 
taken refuge on an upper shelf, and had 
crawled among a pile of sugar-loaves that 
were lying on their sides after the usual 
custom. We pulled out several loaves 
near the spot where the bat was last seen, 
and by casting a strong light from a bull’s- 
eye lantern discovered a little black object 
snugly ensconced at the very back of the 
shelf. I pushed my hand toward the spot, 
but for some time could not seize the creat- 
ure, as it was so tightly packed and 
squeezed into a corner. At last the bat 
gave a flap with one of its wings, which 
I caught, and so I gently drew my prisoner 
forward. He was a brave little fellow, as 
well as discreet, and bit savagely at my 
fingers. However, his little tiny teeth 
could not do much damage, and I put him 
into a cage I had brought with me. 

“ ‘The cage was rather rudely made, the 
back and ends being of wood and the front 


60 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

of wire. In a very few minutes after his 
entrance into the cage the bat climbed up 
the wooden back by hitching his claws into 
the slight inequalities of the wood, and 
there hung suspended, head downward. 
When so.^placed, his aspect was curious 
enough. The claws of the hind legs being 
fixed into a crevice, so as to bear the weight 
of the body, the wings were then extended 
to their utmost and suddenly wrapped 
round the body. 

“ 4 It was rather remarkable that this bat 
would not touch a fly, although one which I 
had before would readily eat flies and other 
insects. But my second bat entirely refused 
insects of any kind, and would eat nothing 
but raw beef cut up into very small morsels. 
I never had a pet so difficult to feed, or so 
dainty. If the meat were not perfectly fresh 
or if it were not cut small enough, the bat 
would hardly look at it. I had to make 
twenty or more attempts daily before the 
creature would condescend to take any 
food. When, however, it did eat, its mode 
of doing so was remarkable enough. It 
seized the meat with a sharp snap, retreat- 


WITH WINGS. 


6 1 


ed to the middle of the cage, sat upright, 
thrust its wings forward to form a kind of 
tent, and then, lowering its head under its 
wings, disposed of the meat unseen. Al- 
though it did not do much in the eating 
way, it frequently came to the water-vessel 
and drank from it, but it was so timid when 
drinking that I could not see whether it 
lapped or drank. When disturbed, it used 
to scuttle away over the floor in a most ab- 
surd manner, but with some speed. Some- 
times it tried to drink by crawling to a spot 
just over the vessel and lowering itself 
until its nose was within reach of the 
water, but the distance was too great for 
the attempt to be successful. In its wild 
state the bat hunts insects as they hover 
over the surface of water, and drinks as it 
flies by dipping its head in the water while 
on the wing, 

“ ‘ Both my bats were very particular, 
not to say finical, about their personal 
appearance. They bestowed much time 
and pains on the combing of their fur, and 
seemed specially to value a straight part- 
ing down the back. It was most interest- 


62 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

ing to watch the little thing parting its 
hair. The claw was drawn in a line 
straight from the top of the head to the 
very tail and the fur parted at each side 
with a dexterity worthy of an accomplished 
lady’s-maid. The same habit has been ob- 
served in other bats that have been tamed.’ ” 

The audience were highly amused with 
this narrative, and there seemed to be a 
general desire to capture a bat just for the 
pleasure of seeing him part his hair. But 
Miss Harson did not encourage the idea, 
and, turning presently to another picture, 
said, 

“ This is called the fox-bat and the flying- 
fox because of its strong resemblance to the 
fox. It is very much larger than our little 
flittermouse, whose body is not larger than 
that of a small mouse; the fox-bat’s wings 
are said sometimes to measure not less than 
five feet from tip to tip. It is found in the 
Eastern islands. When first discovered 
by sailors, a hundred years ago, they were 
very much frightened, and reported that 
they had seen the evil one. One traveler 
saw at least five hundred of them hanging 


FLYING-FOX IN FLIGHT. 




64 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

from the branches of a large tree in all 
sorts of queer attitudes, some by their 
hind feet, and some by their fore feet. 
The sailors called them ‘ monkey-birds.’ It 
is said that they will eat only the ripest 
and best fruit, and in their search for it 
they climb with great facility along the 
under side of the branches. In Java 
these creatures, from their numbers and 
their fruit-eating propensities, do a great 
deal of mischief, as they attack every kind 
of fruit that grows there, from the cocoa- 
nut to the rarer and more delicate produc- 
tions which are cultivated with care in the 
gardens of princes and persons of rank. 
A loose net or basket made of split bam- 
boo is often put over delicate fruits just 
before they ripen, for without this precau- 
tion very little valuable fruit would escape 
the ravages of these bats where they are 
numerous.” 

“Then our bats are not bad at all,” said 
Clara — “ not even as bad as the birds, for 
the bats don’t eat any fruit.” 

“ No,” replied the governess ; “ they cer- 
tainly do not make nuisances of themselves 


WITH WINGS. 65 

in that way, and they are far more retiring 
characters altogether.” 

“Why don’t they shoot the flying-fox 
bats?” asked Malcolm. 

“ It seems that the people in Java do. 
On moonlight nights, which are very clear 
and light there, they lie in wait for these 
fruit-thieves. As soon as they light on the 
trees a discharge of small shot brings them 
to the ground, and four or five will be cap- 
tured\in a short time.” 

“ What do they do with them then ?” 
said Edith. 

“ Sometimes, when they are not much 
hurt, they are sold to people who intend 
selling them again to a showman or a me- 
nagerie-keeper, and very often they are 
killed. The natives of some tropical places 
make the hair of these great bats into ropes, 
and also into tassels for their clubs ; a spe- 
cies found in India is cooked and eaten.” 

There were strong expressions of dis- 
gust at this announcement, but Miss Har- 
son continued : 

“ Animals that feed only on the sweetest 
fruits cannot be bad eating, and their flesh 
5 


66 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

is said to be excellent. There is, however, 
a strong musky odor about them which is 
noticed very plainly when they are at all 
near. All bats have an unpleasant smell, 
but in these large ones it is even more dis- 
agreeable.” 

“ Do the fox-bats bite, Miss Harson ?” 
asked Clara. “ I should think people w'ould 
be afraid of many such creatures together; 
one looks dreadful enough.” 

“They do not bite unless they are taken 
hold of when wounded, and then they bite 
severely ; they are said, too, to cry like a 
squalling child. If shot when they hang 
suspended from a tree, they do not move 
for a long time, and sometimes do not 
move at all, but actually die in this queer 
upside-down position.” 

“Well,” said Malcolm, complacently, “it 
must be a very dizzy kind of business to be 
a fox-bat. I think I’m glad, on the whole, 
that I wasn’t born in that line of life.” 

“Well you may be,” replied his govern- 
ess, laughing, “ but, so far as eating fruit is 
concerned, I think you would not make a 
bad one.” 


WITH WINGS. 


67 


Malcolm declared diat this was too bad, 
and that Miss Harson always remembered 
the things that a fellow wanted her to for- 
get ; but, in spite of this inconvenient habit, 
the “ fellow ” seemed to enjoy these talks 
quite as much as his sisters did. 

“ Now that we have seen,” said Miss 



SPECTRE- VAMPIRE OF BRAZIL. 


Harson, “ that even these large bats are 
not at all dangerous, perhaps we shall 
feel less dread of our own inoffensive 
variety. An old English naturalist wrote 
of seeing a tame bat that would take flies 
out of a person’s hand.” 

“ Oh !” exclaimed the little girls, neither 


68 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

of whom seemed to have any wish to be 
that person. 

“ I mean to catch one this summer,” said 
Malcolm, “ and teach him to take flies out 
of my hand.” 

“ Have you decided how to catch him ?” 
asked his governess, smiling at the air of 
certainty with which this was announced. 
“ Bats, you must remember, are not very 
sociable beings.” 

The young gentleman’s plans did not 
seem to be very clearly arranged, but the 
next wet day found him in the tool-room 
making a cage for this very uncertain 
captive. 


CHAPTER IV. 


RATS. 



HE mice must be finished now,” said 


l Clara, at their next meeting, “and 
I suppose that rats will come next. Very 
queer neighbors they are !” 

“ Have you ever thought,” asked her 
governess, “ that we may seem quite as 
queer to them, if they trouble themselves 
about us at all ?” 

“ They have no business to think us 
queer,” exclaimed Malcolm, “ when they 
come and live in our houses and barns, 
and everywhere, without ever asking us.” 

“ Very often,” was the reply, “ they have 
been in possession some time when people 
move into houses, so that the people are 
really the interlopers. But rats are not 
popular, and are never supposed to have 
a right anywhere.” 

“ Do you think there are any in this 


70 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

house, Miss Harson ?” asked little Edith, 
with a frightened look. 

“No, dear,” was the reply, with a loving 



A RAT FAMILY. 


caress ; “ I do not think that a rat could be 
found in this house even if a reward were 
offered for one.” 

“ Edie wouldn’t have liked the place I 


RA rs. 


71 


was reading about,” said Malcolm, mis- 
chievously : 

“ * And out of the houses the rats came tumbling — 

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, 

Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, 

Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, 

Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, 

Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, 

Families by tens and dozens. 

Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, 

Followed the Piper for their lives.’ ” 


“ It was not a pleasant place,” said Miss 
Harson, “ and I am sure I should not have 
liked it. But an old Scotch lady had in her 
house some rats which she kept purposely 
for the pleasure of their company. A writer 
on animals says that she had a panel in the 
oak wainscot of her dining-room, which she 
tapped upon and opened at meal-times, 
when ten or twelve jolly rats came trip- 
ping forth and joined her at table. At 
the word of command or a signal from 
Her Ladyship they retired again to their 
native obscurity. They were remarkably 
well-behaved rats, you see.” 

“But rats look so ugly,” said Clara. “I 
saw one once, and I didn't like him at all. 


72 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

He was running away, back of the stable, 
and I was so afraid he would bite me.” 

“ If he was running away, dear,” replied 
her governess, laughing, “ he could not very 
well bite you, and I am sure, too, that he 
would much rather have run away.” 

“ But rats do bite, don’t they, Miss Har- 
son ?” asked Malcolm. “ I thought they 
were such savage creatures.” 

“ So they are, in some circumstances, 
but not always. Rats seldom have justice 
done them, because they will persist in 
being where they are not wanted, and, 
unfortunately, some of the dreadful stories 
about them are true. There is very much, 
however, to be learned about them, and 
some things that will surprise us. A great 
many years ago, in an old book, a rat was 
described in this way : ‘ The eyes are large 
and black, the tail is covered with minute 
scales mixed with a few short hairs, and the 
general figure is disgusting.’ It deserves 
a better description, though, than this, and 
another naturalist says that ‘ this very tail, 
ugly as it may appear, is mentioned by the 
great Cuvier as one of the first things that 


RATS. 


7 3 


struck his mind in demonstrating the boun- 
ty of the Creator toward the humblest of 
his creatures in adapting their bodily for- 
mation to the peculiar mode of life which 
he intended them to enjoy. We all admire 
the wonderful construction and admirable 
working together of the numerous muscles 
of the human hand and fore arm ; yet, says 
Cuvier, there are more muscles in a rat’s 
tail than there are in that portion of the 
human economy we admire so much — 
the hand.” 

“Well,” said Malcolm, “his tail’s long 
enough to have muscles in it, and I sup- 
pose he can twist it any way he likes.” 

“ He can do more useful things than that 
with it ; and, indeed, it is a sort of hand to 
him, by the aid of which he can crawl along 
the tops of railings and along the narrow 
ledges of walls, balancing himself by it or 
twining it round the projecting portions 
of the difficult passages along which his 
course lies. By means of it, too, he can 
spring up great heights, and he is said to 
use it to get sweet oil or wine from long- 
necked bottles. He can also climb trees 


74 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

and procure fruit by holding on with his 
tail.” 

“ How very funny !” exclaimed Clara. 
“ I wonder if we shall ever see one doing 
it?” 

“ I hope not,” replied Miss Harson, “ for 
where there is one rat there are sure to be 
more, and we should have very little fruit left, 
with such thieves around. This animal has 
formidable weapons in the shape of four 
small, long and very sharp teeth, two of 
which are fixed in the upper and two in the 
lower jaw. These are formed in the shape 
of a wedge, and have always a fine cutting 
edge that will gnaw through almost any- 
thing, even a lead pipe. Rats are not 
particular about their food, but they have 
a wonderful gift in finding out anything 
eatable and getting at it in spite of every 
care to prevent it.” 

“Aren’t rats the same color as mice, 
Miss Harson ?” asked Edith. “ Clara says 
they’re black.” 

“ Clara is both right and wrong,” was 
the reply, “for a black rat is sometimes 
seen, but the usual color is a dull brown. 


HATS. 


75 


Rats have round bodies, short limbs and 
necks and pointed heads. The long tail 
tapers to a point and is covered with two 
hundred rows of scales. You will be sur- 
prised to hear that ‘the rat is a very cleanly 
animal ; for even when its residence is in a 
ditch or sewer, in the midst of all sorts of 
filth, it almost invariably preserves itself 
from pollution, and in parts remote from 
towns it is often possessed of considerable 
beauty. Although, on account of the in- 
juries it inflicts upon us and the abhorrence 
with which in childhood we are taught to 
regard it, few persons will be apt to dis- 
cover much beauty in a rat, nevertheless, 
any one who has taken notice of rats can 
bear testimony to the fact that in all their 
leisure-time they are constantly sitting on 
end cleaning their fur, and seem perfectly 
restless and unhappy till their jackets are dry 
and clean and arranged in proper order.’ ” 

This did surprise the children : they “ had 
always thought that rats were dirty.” 

“No,” replied their governess; “they are 
not dirty, although they will eat a great 
many things that are disgusting to us. 


j6 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

This habit makes them really useful. They 
will clear away all kinds of animal and veg- 
etable refuse that would otherwise be left 
to spoil and bring disease into the place, 
but unfortunately they will also clear away 
other things that are intended for different 
uses. Besides eating everything that other 
animals eat, they devour many substances 
in the way of provisions that few creatures 
would fancy. In houses they feed on 
bread, potatoes, suet, tallow, flesh, fish, 
cheese and butter — in short, almost every- 
thing that comes in their way, including 
leather and articles of clothing.” 

“ I’d like to see ’em at work on a pair 
of old boots,” observed Malcolm. 

“They can do more than that, as they 
will bite through lead and even attack stone. 
In the poultry-yard they destroy the young 
chickens, and in granaries and cornyards 
they are very destructive. Whenever it 
conveniently can, the rat makes its hole 
very near the edge of the water, where it 
chiefly resides during the summer months, 
feeding on small animals, fish and grain. 
It also haunts the cornfields, where it bur- 


RATS. 


77 



sumes much, but wastes 
more. It also destroys rab- 
bits, poultry and all sorts of 
game, and scarcely any of the feebler ani- 
mals can escape its rapacity. 

“ I don’t wonder, then, that people hate 


rows and breeds. When winter approaches 
it draws near some farmhouse and works 
its way into the cornricks, where it con- 


CAUGHT IN A 
TRAP. 



78 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELAIRIDGE. 

rats and set traps to catch them,” said 
Clara, “ when they are such greedy creat- 
ures. I wish they could all be killed. 
Think of their eating the pretty little 
chickens and rabbits !” 

Edith too exclaimed over their wicked- 
ness, and Miss Harson smiled as she asked 
her little pupils if rats were the only creat- 
ures who ate chickens, to say nothing of 
other feathered things and larger animals 
besides. This was a new view of the mat- 
ter, and there seemed to be no answer 
ready. 

“ I know very nice people who do just 
such wicked things,” continued the young 
lady, “ and no one seems to think any the 
worse of them for it.” 

“Any way,” said Malcolm, coming to the 
rescue, “ they don’t steal ’em.” 

“ No ; they go respectably to the market 
and buy them, or else have them killed from 
their own flocks and herds. But how can 
rats do either of these things ? They have 
but one way of getting what they want, and 
that is to seize it whenever they have the 
chance.” 


RATS. 


79 


“ Miss Harson,” asked Clara, presently, 
“ are rats ever tame, so that they will not 
bite ?” 

“ Certainly,” was the reply, “ for there are 
a great many stories told about tame ones.” 

“ Oh, will you not tell us some ?” was the 
general cry ; and their governess continued : 

“This is not very much of a story, but it 
is something very singular that happened a 
great many years ago. A gentleman who 
was traveling in Germany stopped at an 
inn, and he was very much surprised when, 
after dinner, the landlord put a large dish 
of soup on the floor and gave a loud whis- 
tle. He was still more surprised when the 
whistle was quickly answered by the ap- 
pearance of a mastiff, an Angora cat, an 
old raven and a remarkably large rat with 
a bell around its neck. All four went to 
the dish of soup and fed together in the 
most amicable fashion ; then the dog, the 
cat and the rat laid themselves down be- 
fore the fire, while the raven hopped around 
the room. The landlord said that the rat 
was the most useful of the whole four, for 
the noise he made with his bell had fright- 


80 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

ened away all the other rats, as well as the 
mice, which had completely overrun the 
house.” 

This was very exciting to the youthful 
audience, who thought of asking papa to 
take them to Germany forthwith to hunt 
up the happy family. But Miss Harson 
was obliged to upset this nice little plan. 

“ I am sorry,” she said, “ to seem discour- 
aging ; but if papa were quite ready to take 
the trip — which I am sure he is not — neither 
dog, cat, raven nor rat could be found, for 
they must all have died long ago.” 

Edie declared that it was “ very mean ” 
of such interesting animals to go and die, 
so that she could never see them. 

This made every one laugh, and their 
governess said, with a caress for her 
youngest charge, 

“Never mind, dear; it is something to 
hear about them ; and when you really 
do travel in foreign countries, you will 
see more wonderful things than that. 
Shall I tell you now about some perform- 
ing rats ?” 

By this time Edith’s April face was all 


HATS. 


8 I 


sunshine again, and she settled herself 
close to her beloved Miss Harson with 
an air of great content. 

“ The Japanese are famous rat-tamers, 
and they are able to teach the tamed rats 
a great many amusing tricks. Performing 
rats are quite common shows in that far-off 
region, and travelers are always amazed at 
the human actions which these small ani- 
mals can be made to imitate. Even a com- 
pany of theatrical rats have appeared on the 
stage dressed up just like men and women. 
They walked about on their hind legs with 
many airs and graces, and so perfectly mim- 
icked the ways of actors and actresses that 
every one was delighted. The only time 
when they forgot themselves — or, rather, 
remembered themselves, for they had not 
seemed like rats before — was on the bring- 
ing in of some food as part of the play. 
The moment they caught sight of it down 
went the rats on all-fours ; they forgot all 
about their parts, the manager and the 
audience, and acted as if they had been 
put there for the express purpose of de- 
vouring everything before them. When 
6 


82 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

they had done this, they went on with 
the performance, which they finished by 
hanging a stuffed cat and dancing merri- 
ly around it.” 

This even went beyond the happy family, 
and Malcolm threw out mysterious hints 
of an intention to catch some rats and 
teach them how to perform. 

“ If you carry out all your plans, Mal- 
colm,” said his governess, laughing, “you 
will have a happy family of your own to 
provide for.” 

The little sisters were very much pleased 
with this idea, and they were quite apt to 
think that Malcolm could succeed in any- 
thing he tried to do. But papa thought 
differently, and the rats were not caught 
that year. 

“ Rats are not usually very affectionate,” 
continued Miss Harson, “and they have 
even been known to devour one anoth- 
er, yet they are sometimes kind to their 
helpless friends and relatives. A gentle- 
man was walking out in the meadows one 
evening, and saw a number of rats moving 
from one place to another, as they are 



RATS IN COSTUME 




84 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

in the habit of doing occasionally. He 
stood perfectly still while the whole assem- 
bly passed close to him. His astonishment, 
however, was great when he saw an old 
blind rat holding in its mouth one end of a 
piece of stick, while another rat had hold 
of the other end, and thus conducted its 
blind companion. Some one on board of 
a vessel just ready to sail wrote : ‘ On a 
bright moonlight evening we discovered 
two rats on the plank coming into the ship. 
The foremost was leading the other by a 
straw, each rat holding one end of it in its 
mouth. We managed to capture them 
both, and found, to our surprise, that the 
one led by the other was stone-blind. 
His faithful friend was trying to get him 
on board, where he would have comfortable 
quarters during a three years’ cruise.’ ” 

The children seemed as much surprised 
to hear of blind rats as of such ingenious 
ones, but the idea of making pets of these 
animals was still more strange. 

“Yes,” said their governess, “this is 
really done, and a traveler in Siam speaks 
of his astonishment on seeing in some of 


RATS. 


8s 


the houses a huge rat walking about the 
room, as much at home as any one, and 
even crawling up the master’s legs in the 
most familiar manner possible. The master 
did not think of knocking it off or of feel- 
ing frightened, but would take it up in 
his hands and caress it as if it had been 
a puppy. It seems that it is the custom 
there to keep pet rats, which are caught 
very young, and so kindly treated and well 
fed that they grow to an immense size. 
These act as watchdogs against the other 
rats, and they attack them so fiercely 
whenever they dare to show themselves 
that a house with a pet rat in it is never 
troubled long with either rats or mice.” 

“Where do people eat rats?” asked Mal- 
colm. “ I know they do somewhere.” 

“ The very poor people in China are said 
to make use of this kind of food. Some- 
times people who would not have thought 
they could do such a thing have been glad 
to get rats to eat to keep themselves from 
starving. During sieges and in cases of 
shipwreck rats have been thought a del- 
icacy. When Paris was besieged by the 


86 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

Germans in 1870, rats brought a good price 
in market. They are said, when nicely 
cooked, to be by no means bad eating. 
A traveler says : ‘ I have seen a dried rat 
bought in the market of a Chinese town. 
It has been split down the centre, powder- 
ed with some white substance and pressed 
under some heavy weight, as is evident 
from its shape, its appearance being very 
much like that of a common haddock. 
These John Chinaman buys, and then 
dresses — boils, roasts or fries.’ ” 

The little Kyles declared very positively 
that if they were ever so hungry they would 
not eat rats. They were much surprised 
when Miss Harson said, 

“A great many people have no idea 
that they are wearing ratskins on their 
hands.” 

“ On their hands ’ !” exclaimed Malcolm. 
“ Then it must be gloves. Why, Miss Har- 
son, I thought gloves were made of kid — at 
least, kid gloves.” 

“ It is said that in Paris, where so many 
gloves are made, ratskins are oftener used 
than kid, and that they make beautifully soft, 


RA TS. 87 

thin gloves. So you see that rats are not 
without their uses.” 

Clara and Edith wondered if their dainty 
kid gloves which they enjoyed so much 
could be made of ratskins, and they did not 
feel comfortable about it at all. But Miss 
Harson said that this did not matter if the 
gloves were just as nice, and that she should 
wear hers with as much pleasure as ever. 

“ There are rats down by the water,” said 
Malcolm, presently ; “ are they the same 
kind, Miss Harson ?” 

“No,” was the reply; “they are quite differ- 
ent, and are never seen except at the water- 
side. This species is called the ‘water-rat’ 
or ‘water-vole,’ and is made for living in and 
by the water. The water-rat has a short 
neck and a round head, so that he can swim 
fast through the water. His fur, too, is 
very peculiar and answers the purpose 
of a warm waterproof great-coat, being a 
close, silky pile that never gets wet. This 
'rat is often seen swimming under water, 
when he looks like a large air-bubble mov- 
ing along ; and his tail is quite different 
from that of other rats, being rounder and 


88 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

tapering more, and acts as a sort of rudder 
and paddle.” 

Clara and Edith thought this one a much 
nicer rat than the other, and were quite 
willing to see him swimming along in the 
water. 

“ He has short ears, while the house-rat 
has long, projecting ones that catch the 
slightest sound, and they are furnished 
with a skin-like curtain which he can draw 
over them when in the water, while the fur 
almost conceals them at all times. This 
sailor-rat never comes near houses, but 
lives by the sides of canals and ponds and 
in the water-meadows, where he makes a 
secure retreat for himself in the banks. He 
often does a great deal of damage in this 
way by undermining the dams and banks 
on whose security much valuable property 
depends. Knowing that he has many ene- 
mies and that his only safety from them is 
in flight, Mr. Vole makes two entrances to 
his residence, one always tinder water, and 
the other at the side or on the top of the 
bank. This makes it very difficult to catch 
him ; for when disturbed, he will come up 


RATS. 


89 


to his land-hole to see if the coast is clear; 
and if he does not like the appearance of 
things, away he will rush into the water 
through his other opening, and swim away 
as quietly as possible. He is often hunted 
for his skin, which is very beautiful and soft 
as silk.” 

“ Do water-rats eat things that the other 
rats do ?” asked Clara, “ or do they live on 
the little fishes ?” 

“ They are said to live entirely on vege- 
tables,” replied her governess, “ and to come 
out in the night for this food. All rats are 
given to night-rambles ; and our water- 
friend is very much of a rat, after all.” 

“ Can’t you tell us a real long story about 
rats, Miss Harson ?” said Edith. “ I’d like 
to hear about a tame rat that did funny 
things.” 

“You are not tired of rats yet, then?” 
asked the young lady. 

“ Oh no, indeed we are not !” from three 
voices. “ So do, please, tell us a nice long 
story.” 

“ I am afraid I shall have to,” was the re- 
ply, “as I really know something about a 


90 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

tame rat which I read a long time ago, and 
I will tell what I can remember of it. We 
will call the story 4 Ikey.’ 

“It all happened in England, and it began 
in this way. Many years ago an omnibus- 
driver was busy one day in his hayloft, when 
he found a miserable-looking little ratsnugly 
curled up in a corner among the hay. His 
mamma had probably tucked him up safely 
in bed and then gone off to hunt for some- 
thing nice for supper ; but when she came 
back, her infant was gone. 

“ The young rat was of a queer, piebald 
color — brown in some places and white in 
others — and the omnibus-driver is said to 
have pitied him very much on this account. 
We can be quite sure, though, that the little 
animal himself was not at all troubled by 
this misfortune. However, the man pick- 
ed him up quite tenderly and took him 
home with him to his family. 

“ The driver’s little children were delight- 
ed with their new toy, and they named him 
‘Ikey,’ after their eldest brother, whose 
name was Isaac. In a short time the 
little rat had become a large one, and a 


RATS. 


91 


perfect pet with all the family. He show- 
ed a gentle, affectionate disposition, and, 
receiving nothing but kindness from every 
one, he was as tame and playful as a pet 
dog. He would roam about the house 
from top to bottom, and came and went 
as he pleased. 

“ Ikey’s favorite seat was inside the fender 
or on the clean white hearth, but, unless it 
was clean and white, he would never step a 
foot on it. He did not intend, you see, to 
encourage anything like carelessness about 
the house. One day, when his mistress was 
cleaning the hearth, she found Master Ikey 
in the way and gave him a push ; he then 
jumped on the hob, which is rather near 
the fire, and, liking his new quarters, he 
concluded to stay there. The fire burned 
briskly, and the hob grew hotter and hot- 
ter. His Ratship was quite disgusted, 
when he had settled himself so comfort- 
ably, to find such an unexpected change, 
but move he would not; so there he stay- 
ed until the fire had actually singed the 
hair on his legs and body.” 

The children pronounced him an obsti- 


92 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

nate little animal, but they supposed that 
he would move then. 

“ He must have done so, as he lived for 
some time afterward. But, obstinate as he 
was, his master had perfect control over 
him, and managed him successfully with a 
little whip. With the aid of this whip Ikey 
was taught to sit on his hind legs and beg 
like a dog, jump through a whalebone hoop, 
drag a small cart to which he was harness- 
ed, carry sticks, money, etc., in his mouth, 
and perform many other amusing tricks. 

“The meaning of the whip was soon un- 
derstood ; and whenever the animal saw it, 
and a frown on his master’s face, he would 
run in fear and trembling and scamper up 
the sides of the room or up the curtains, not 
feeling safe until he had reached the high- 
est possible point. And there he would 
stay until his master spoke kindly to him, 
when down he would come, hopping about 
and squeaking with delight. He would get 
into a perfect gale of enjoyment, and run 
round after his tail so fast that it was not 
easy to tell whether a rat, a top or some- 
thing else was whirling at that mad rate. 


HATS. 


93 


“ Ikey acted in many ways very much like 
a cat, and he dearly loved a warm place to 
sleep in. It was his habit to stretch himself 
at full length on the rug before the fire, and 
this was his favorite way of warming him- 
self. Sometimes the fire would go out at 
night ; and when he felt the room getting 
cold, Master Ikey would creep up into his 
master’s bed and try to squeeze himself in 
under the clothes. He was never allowed 
to stay there when he was discovered, but 
he always left most unwillingly. The next 
best place, he appeared to think, was in the 
folds of his master’s clothes, which were 
placed on a chair, and here he could stay 
in peace until morning. 

“The omnibus-driver had become very 
fond of his strange pet, and he taught him 
at the word of command — ‘ Come along, 
Ikey!’ — to jump into his great-coat pocket 
in the morning when he went out to his daily 
occupation. He would not carry him all day 
in this pocket, but would put him into the 
boot of the omnibus to act as guard to his 
master’s dinner, which he had to take with 
him, as he did not get home until dark. 


94 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“ It would seem only natural for the rat 
to eat up the dinner himself, but the man 
was not at all afraid of this, for he said that 
he took care to give his four-legged com- 
panion as much as he would eat when he 
had his own breakfast, and so the dinner 
was always safe. There was only one 
thing which always proved too much for 
Ikey, and that was plum-pudding. When 
this was in the basket, the guardian became 
uneasy and sniffed around until he could 
stand it no longer. Then he went deliber- 
ately to work and ate out all the plums, 
leaving the rest for his master. But when 
any of the loafers lounging around the tav- 
erns where the omnibus stopped attempted 
to steal the dinner, Ikey would fly out at 
them with such fury from his lair in the 
straw that they were glad enough to drop 
it at once. 

“ When night came, this comical rat was 
taken home again in the driver’s pocket to 
partake of the family supper ; but if stran- 
gers happened to be present, away went 
Ikey to hide himself until they were gone. 
He was often very hungry, but he seemed 


RATS. 


95 


to find it easier to go without food than to 
overcome his shyness and eat before com- 
pany.” 

“What a funny rat!” was the general 
exclamation. “ Isn’t there any more of 
him, Miss Harson ?” 

“Not very much more, but you shall 
have all there is. By and by Ikey grew 
old — for a rat — and his teeth became bad 
and worn out. This interfered with his 
eating a great many things which he liked 
very much, and the children often teased 
their aged pet by giving him a very hard 
cake made of molasses and called ‘brandy- 
snacks.’ Why ‘ brandy-snacks ’ it is hard 
to tell, but in his younger days Ikey had 
been almost as fond of these dainties as he 
was of plum-pudding. Now it was so hard 
to chew them, and he was so resolved upon 
doing it, that he would get into a perfect 
rage over his brandy-snacks, and his absurd 
antics were very amusing.” 

“ It was a shame, though, to tease him,” 
said Clara, pityingly, “he must have been 
such a nice little rat.” 

The idea of a “ nice little rat ” set Mai- 


g6 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

colm off into a fit of laughter, and Miss 
Harson, too, was obliged to smile. The 
rat-talk ended very merrily, and the story 
of Ikey was considered a particularly in- 
teresting- one. 

o 


CHAPTER V. 


WHA T COMES AFTER : CA TS. 



O S E and 
Daisy, the 
two pretty kit- 
tens given by 
the kind doctor 
to the little girls 
at Elm ridge 
when they were 
in the hospital with 
measles, were now 
grown into respectable 
cats, but they were still 
remarkably pretty, and as great pets with 
their little mistresses as ever. 

“Aren’t they ‘little neighbors,’ too, Miss 
Harson ?” asked Clara. “ And wouldn’t it 
be nice to have cats come after rats and 

* V > 

mice r 

“ The cats always think it nice,” was the 

7 97 


PUSS AT SCHOOL. 


98 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

laughing reply, “ but I have an idea that the 
rats and the mice feel differently. We cer- 
tainly must have a talk, though, about cats ; 
for they are not only ‘ little neighbors,’ but 
the nearest and most intimate four-legged 
ones you have.” 

When the time came, there sat Rose and 
Daisy, each with a fresh ribbon around her 
neck — Rose’s being always pink, and 
Daisy’s blue — trying hard, Malcolm said, 
to look pretty, and as much “ fixed up ” 
as though they were going to have their 
photographs taken. 

“And so they are going to, in a certain 
way,” said Miss Harson as she stroked 
each soft back : “ their character-photo- 
graphs will be taken as a species, and 
well may they look serious and import- 
ant at the prospect.” 

Long before the talk was over, however, 
both pussies were fast asleep, and this look- 
ed as if they cared very little about their 
characters or their species. Each was com- 
fortably settled in the lap of her little mis- 
tress, with a “ cunning little paw” laid over 
the arm that held her. 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


99 


“ It is easier to examine a cat than a 
mouse or a rat,” continued Miss Harson, 
“ and we will now see what there is remark- 
able about these animals. — Look, Clara, at 
the under side of that front paw and tell me 



DAISY. 


what you see there. Edith may do the same 
with Daisy.” 

The children reported that there were 
funny little cushions under each toe. 

“That is what makes them step so soft- 
ly,” said their governess ; “ a * catlike tread * 


IOO LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

is one that makes no sound. The mice 
and the birds which Pussy delights in, and 
which are her natural food, do not know 
that she is coming until she is there.” 

“ That’s what I hate about cats,” exclaim- 
ed Malcolm. “ The poor little birds ! The 
cats may eat as many rats and mice as they 
please, but they’ve no business to touch the 
birds. They’re so wicked about ’em, too ! 
There was Rose, the other day, worrying a 
poor little chipping-sparrow she’d caught in 
the garden, letting it go a little way and 
then pouncing on it again. I took it away 
from her as soon as I could, but the poor 
little thing was dead.” 

“ Oh !” groaned Clara, almost pushing 
her favorite from her lap and then re- 
morsefully cuddling her again. It was 
very, very bad of her to torture and kill 
the innocent birds, but then she was so 
lovely ! 

“And Daisy’s just as bad,” continued 
Malcolm, mischievously. 

Edith looked frightened ; she felt almost 
as though she had been petting a wild 
beast. 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


IOI 


But Miss Harson soon set matters right : 

“ They are not really ‘ bad ’ at all, al- 
though it seems very cruel to us. Their 
ways are guided by instinct, and they are 
so made as to act out their nature. Be- 
sides the velvet cushions on their paws, 
you will find long sharp nails, or claws, 
hooked at the end, which are drawn back 
under the soft fur except when they seize 
their prey ; and as soon as they jump at it 
the claws are all out, ready to grasp it.” 

“ Rose has four such sharp teeth at the 
sides,” said Clara, very gently opening 
her sleepy pet’s mouth. “I wonder she 
doesn't bite.” 

“You mean that you wonder she doesn’t 
bite you; but she does a great deal of bit- 
ing when she feels th-e need of food. Those 
four corner teeth, however, are more for 
killing and tearing, as she chews with her 
back teeth, of which she has a goodly 
stock.” 

“Just feel Daisy’s tongue, Miss Harson,” 
said Edith as she passed her own finger 
over that member. “What makes it so 
rough ?” 


102 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

“ That is also a convenience in eating, for 
it helps her to lick every particle of flesh off 
the bones. All her needs, you see, have 
been considered by the Creator.” 

“ Can a cat really see in the dark, Miss 
Harson ?” asked Malcolm. 

“ She can, in a measure,” was the reply. 
“ Look at one of those eyes which Rose has 
just opened. The little black pupil, you 
see, is just an opening for admitting the 
light. ‘ Now, if a great glare of light were 
to come into her eyes, she could make the 
pupils quite small, so as to shut it out. On 
the contrary, when there is very little light, 
she dilates, or opens them wide, in order to 
catch all that there is. It is this which en- 
ables her to find her food during the night, 
for the night is her natural time to prowl 
about and provide for herself. She cannot 
see in total darkness, but in what appears 
darkness to us she catches in those wide- 
opened pupils all the scattered rays of light. 
Her hearing, too, is very quick. I believe 
you will never catch her in so sound a sleep 
but that if she hears the smallest rustling 
or chirping resembling that of a mouse or 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


103 


a bird she will instantly raise her head and 
listen.’ ” 

“ I’m sure that cats are nice and clean,” 
said Clara, hugging her pet very close, 
“for Rose and Daisy are always washing 
themselves ; and when they have had any- 
thing to eat, they rub their faces all over 
with their paws.” 

“ Yes,” replied her governess, “ and there 
is a funny little story about their doing 
this. The story runs that a cat once 
caught a sparrow and was going to de- 
vour it, when the sparrow said, ‘ No gen- 
tleman eats till he has first washed his 
face.’ This remark made quite an impres- 
sion on the cat, who seemed anxious to 
have the sparrow consider him a genteel 
personage, and, setting down the crafty lit- 
tle bird, he began to wash his face with his 
paw. Not thinking it best to wait until 
Pussy had finished his toilet, the sparrow 
flew away, and the disappointed cat ex- 
claimed, ‘As long as I live I will eat first 
and wash my face afterward.’ Which all 
cats do to this day.” 

“ What a nice little story !” said Edith 


104 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 


“And I’m so glad the poor sparrow got 
away !” 

“ I thought all your sympathy would be 
for the bird,” replied Miss Harson, smiling; 
“ so I will give a view of the matter in 

o 

rhyme : 


“ ‘ Tell me, tell me, gentle Robin, 

What is it sets thy heart a-throbbing ? 

Is it that Grimalkin fell. 

Hath he killed thy father or thy mother, 
Thy sister or thy brother, 

Or any other ? 

Tell me but that, 

And I’ll kill the cat. 

“ ‘ But stay, little Robin ! Did you ever spare 
A grub on the ground or a fly in the air ? 
No, that you never did, I’ll swear ! 

So I won’t kill the cat, 

That’s flat.’ ’’ 


“We don’t want our cats killed,” said 
Clara, “and I suppose that they do have 
to eat birds sometimes.” 

“ But if you had the birds,” replied Mal- 
colm, “and some one else had the cat, I 
guess you wouldn’t say that.” 

His sister, who wished to be entirely just, 
did not think she would, and it was getting 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


105 


to be quite a puzzling case, when their gov- 
erness advised them to give it up as one 
that could not be settled by people who 
cared for either cats or birds. 

We find, as Miss Harson told the little 
people, that in the ordering of creation one 
class of creatures — insects, birds, animals — 
is kept in check by some other class, which 
it serves as food, to the advantage of the 
world as a whole. 

“ And now,” she added, “ let us hear 

“'THE KITTEN’S STORY. 

“ ' I’m a gray-eyed little kitten ; 

I’m pretty roguish, too ; 

But ah ! I’m always busy : 

I’ve got lots of work to do. 


“ ' I chase the little chickens, 

I scamper up the tree 
And frighten off the robins; 
Ah ! that’s the work for me. 


“ ' I get in mistress’ basket 

And throw her spools away, 
And get my little ears boxed 
A dozen times a day. 

“ ' Out in the flower-garden 
I chase the butterflies ; 


106 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

And when they’re upward flying, 

I jump ’most to the skies. 

“ * One day I caught a sparrow 
And brought it proudly in, 

But mistress took it from me 
And said it was a sin. 

“ ‘ A sin to kill a sparrow — 

A tiny little bird ! 

I think they’re made for kittens; 

I do, upon my word. 

“ * Last week Nellie had a party 
Of little folks to dine ; 

Then mistress killed a chicken 
And had it cooked up fine. 

“ * I sat beneath the table 

While they discussed the meat, 

And every one pronounced it 
Nice, excellent and sweet. 

“ * But when I kill a sparrow, 

They make it out a crime ! 

I ask them to explain it ; 

But no : they haven’t time ! 

“ ‘ Although I’m but a kitten 

And never learned to read, 

I can’t agree with mistress — 

I can’t, I can’t, indeed !’ 


“ Put Rose — who seems to be wide 
awake now — before the glass,” said the 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 10 7 

young lady, “and see what she will do. I 
have just seen in one of these books some- 
thing about a cat before a looking-glass 
which I will read you.” 

Rose’s astonishment to see another cat 
in the glass, and her queer antics, were 
very amusing; she acted exactly as did 
the cat which the writer described when 
he said, 

“ No experiment can be more beautiful 
than that of setting a kitten for the first 
time before a looking-glass. The animal 
appears surprised and pleased with the 
reflection, and makes several attempts to 
touch its new acquaintance ; and at length, 
finding its efforts fruitless, it looks behind 
the glass and appears highly astonished 
at the absence of the figure. It again 
views itself and tries to touch the image 
with its foot, suddenly looking at intervals 
behind the glass. It then becomes more 
accurate in its observations, and begins, as 
it were, to make experiments by stretching 
out its paw in different directions; and 
when it finds that these motions are an- 
swered in every respect by the figure in 


108 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

the glass, it seems at length to be con- 
vinced of the real nature of the image.” 

The experiment must, of course, be tried 
with Daisy too, and her amazement was, 
if possible, greater than her sister’s had 
been. After staring at the figure in the 
glass, out would go the little paw for a 
smart tap, but, seeing another paw lifted 
threateningly in her very face, she would 
draw it back suddenly and stand as if 
puzzling over what it meant. 

“ Oh, you little darling !” exclaimed the 
owner of each surprised cat, catching it up 
in delight ; but Rose and Daisy would 
struggle back to the glass again and act 
as if they intended to have the thing un- 
derstood. Whether they ever did under- 
stand it was doubtful, but their fondness for 
the mirror was a source of much amusement 
to the family. 

“ Cats never do anything smart, like 
dogs,” said Malcolm ; “ all they’re good 
for is just to lie round and be petted.” 

“ People say even worse things against 
cats than that,” replied his governess, “and 
things that have no more truth in them. 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


IO9 


Their cleverness is not so often noticed as 
that of dogs, and for the very good reason 
that they are not generally so well treated. 
But they are often useful. A few lines from 
an old fable will explain their peculiar gifts: 


“ ‘ “ Well, Puss,” says man, “ and what can you 
To benefit the public do ?” 

The cat replies, “These teeth, these claws, 
With vigilance shall serve thy cause. 

The mouse, destroy’d by my pursuit, 

No longer shall your feast pollute ; 

Nor rats from nightly ambuscade 

With wasteful teeth your stores invade.” — 

“ I grant,” says man, “ to general use 
Your parts and talents may conduce; 

For rats and mice purloin our grain, 

And threshers whirl the flail in vain ; 

Thus shall the cat, a foe to spoil, 

Protect the farmers’ honest toil.” ’ ” 


“Well,” continued the young gentleman, 
“of course they catch rats and mice, be- 
cause they want ’em to eat, and that is 
what they’re meant for; but they never 
save people from drowning, as dogs do, 
and they don’t seem to know anything.” 

“We must see about that,” said Miss 
Harson. “A certain cat that had hurt its 
leg seemed to know something. While 


IIO LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 


the leg was bad the cat’s mistress constantly 
gave the cat milk, but the lameness seem- 
ed to last a long time, and at last the lady 



“ THE MOUSE, DESTROY’D BY MY PURSUIT.” 


found out that whenever the animal saw 
her it would walk lame and put up its paw, 
as though it were painful to have it touch 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


1 1 


the ground. I think that showed consid- 
erable reasoning power.” 

Malcolm admitted that it was very much 
like a dog, and the children were all sur- 
prised that a cat could do so much thinking. 

‘“Just before the earthquake at Messina,’ ” 
continued their governess, “ ‘a merchant of 
that town noticed that his cats were scratch- 
ing at the door of his room in a state of 
great excitement. He opened the door for 
them, and they Hew down stairs and began to 
scratch more violently still at the street door. 
Filled with wonder, the master let them out 
and followed them through the town out of 
the gates and into the fields beyond, but 
even then they seemed half mad with 
fright and scratched and tore at the grass. 
Very shortly the first shock of the earth- 
quake was felt, and many houses — the 
merchant’s among them — came thunder- 
ing in ruins to the ground.’ Those cats, 
therefore, had saved their master’s life, 
though by what means they knew of the 
coming earthquake we cannot tell, except 
that animals are always very sensitive to 
all disturbances of nature. If cats do not 


1 12 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

save people from drowning, Malcolm, it is 
because, in addition to their natural horror 
of water, they have not the necessary size 
and strength ; but there are other dangers 
besides that of drowning.” 

“ I thought you didn’t care about cats, 
Miss Harson ?” said Malcolm, in surprise. 

“ I do not think I do really care for them,” 
replied the young lady — “ except, of course, 
Rose and Daisy,” with a smile at the dis- 
tressed faces of the two little girls — “ but I 
know that they have their good qualities as 
well as their bad ones, and we are trying to 
learn all that we can about them. I have 
been reading lately what I could find in our 
books about animals on the subject of cats, 
and I have been really surprised at many 
of the things that are written about them. 
Cats are generally supposed to have no 
particular affection for any one, but merely 
a fondness for being petted and made com- 
fortable, yet some of these stories prove 
quite the contrary. One cat was very 
fond of her mistress, and her way of show- 
ing it was to bring all the dainties she could 
steal from the pantry, and every mouse she 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 1 1 3 

caught, and lay them as offerings at the 
lady’s feet. Sometimes she would go in 
the middle of the night to the door of her 
mistress’s room and mew until the door was 
opened, when she would present her mouse 
with great satisfaction. After this she re- 
mained quiet and contented.” 

The children thought this “ wonderfully 
cunning ” — although it could not have been 
very pleasant for the lady to have a dead 
mouse brought to her in the middle of the 
night — and cats began to rise in Malcolm’s 
estimation. 

“ Another cat-story is still more remark- 
able. A family had a favorite tom-cat which 
had often shown more sagacity than cats 
are generally supposed to possess. One 
day Tom made off very quietly with a piece 
of beef. A servant cautiously followed him 
with the intention of catching him and ad- 
ministering a little wholesome correction. 
To her amazement, she saw the cat go to a 
corner of the yard where she knew a rat- 
hole existed, and lay the beef down by the 
side of it. Leaving the beef there, he hid 
himself a short distance off and watched 


1 14 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

until a rat made its appearance. Tom’s 
tail then began to move, and just as the 



rat was going away with the bait he 
sprang upon and killed it.” 

“ Good for Tom !” exclaimed Mal- 
colm, admiringly. “ Why, that’s like going 
a-fishing.” 

“Aren’t cats always very good to their 
kittens, Miss Harson ?” asked Clara. 

“ Yes, dear ; they are very devoted moth- 
ers while their children are young enough 
to need their care, and their thoughtfulness 
and anxiety are often surprising. A family- 
cat had formed a warm friendship with a 
Newfoundland dog; she continually caress- 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


15 


ed him, advanced in all haste, with her tail 
erect, w r hen he came home, and rubbed her 
head against him, purring with delight. 
When he lay down before the kitchen fire, 
she used him as a bed, pulling up and set- 
tling his hair with her claws to make it com- 
fortable. As soon as she had arranged it 
to her liking she lay down upon him and 
fell asleep. The dog bore this combing of 
his locks with patient placidity, turning his 
head toward the cat during the operation, 
and sometimes gently licking her. 

“ Puss had a young family with whom 
Pincher was on visiting-terms. The nursery 
was at the top of the house. One day there 
was a storm. Puss was up stairs with the 
babies, and Pincher was in the parlor. 
Pincher evidently was disturbed by the 
thunder. Presently, Puss came down stairs 
mewing, went straight to Pincher, rubbed 
her cheek against his and touched him 
gently with her paw, and then walked to 
the door and, looking back, mewed, as 
though asking him to go with her. But 
Pincher was himself sorely afraid, and 
could render no assistance. Puss grew 


Il6 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

desperate, and, having renewed her appli- 
cation with increased energy, but without 
success, at last left the room, mewing pit- 
eously, while Pincher sat with a guilty face, 
evidently knowing his conduct was selfish. 

“A lady who had watched this scene 
went out to look after the cat, when the 
animal, mewing, led the way to a bedroom 
on the first floor, from under a wardrobe in 
which a small voice was heard crying. Puss 
had brought one of her babies down stairs, 
and was racked with anxiety respecting its 
welfare while she was bringing the others. 
It was as clear as possible that she wanted 
Pincher to lend a paw — that is to say, look 
after this isolated infant — while she brought 
down the rest. The lady took up the kit- 
ten in her arms and accompanied Puss up 
stairs, then moved the little bed from the 
window, through which the lightning had 
been flashing so vividly as to alarm Puss 
for the safety of her family. She remained 
with the cat until the storm had subsided 
and all was calm. On the following morn- 
ing the lady was much surprised to find 
Puss waiting for her outside her bedroom 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 



had resisted all her mistress’s coaxing to 
leave the other lady’s door, and would not 
go away until she made her appearance. 
She remained till breakfast was over, then 
went up stairs to her family. She had never 
done this before, and never did it again. 


ii ; 

door, and she went with her down stairs to 
breakfast, sat by her side and caressed her 
in every possible way. Puss had always 
been in the habit of going down with the 
lady of the house, but on this occasion she 


A FAMILY SCENE. 


Il8 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

She had shown her gratitude for the 
lady’s care of her little ones, and her duty 
was done.” 

“Wasn’t that good!” exclaimed the little 
girls, in delight, while Malcolm thought “ it 
showed some sense.” 

“ But, Miss Harson,” said Clara, “ isn’t it 
very cruel to take cats’ kittens away from 
them and drown them ?” 

“It seems more cruel, dear, than it is,” 
was the reply. “ One kitten, at least, is 
generally left, but cats have so many kit- 
tens that if they were all allowed to live 
the world would be fairly overrun with 
them. Besides, the cat outgrows her af- 
fection for her children when they are 
old enough to take care of themselves, 
and after being separated for a while 
mother and child will fly at each other, if 
they happen to meet, just like two strange 
cats.” 

This was almost too dreadful to believe, 
for the children could not understand that 
the very things which shocked them so 
are instincts given to animals by the Cre- 
ator of the universe to enable them to 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


ll 9 

carry out his wise and benevolent plans 
for the general good. 

“ I suppose you did not know,” continued 
Miss Harson, “ that cats which have been 
deprived of their kittens will often nurse 
other young animals, and those, too, be- 
longing to their natural enemies? Well, 
it is really so ; and a cat whose kittens 
had all been taken away from her — a very 
cruel thing — was actually found nursing a 
young rat.” 

“ I suppose she stole it from its own 
mother,” said Malcolm, as they were all 
laughing at this funny story. 

“ I suppose she did, and very likely she 
killed the mother and the rest of the fami- 
ly first, to save trouble. A cat has been 
known to do this. The young rat in this 
story was well taken care of and had plenty 
to eat, and he and the cat became as fond 
of each other as though they had really been 
mother and child. When he was quite grown 
up, if any danger threatened him, he would 
always run to the cat for protection, while 
she would get her back up in a very dan- 
gerous fashion in his defence.” 


120 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

It was comical, but the conduct of another 
cat-mother was still more amusing. 

“ A little black spaniel had five puppies, 
which were too many for her to bring up at 
once ; but, as the dogs were too valuable to 
be killed, the owner was advised to give 
two of them to the cat, who had a family 
of her own which no one cared to keep. 
The cat made no objection, but took kind- 
ly to the puppies ; and by degrees all her 
kittens were taken away and she was nurs- 
ing only the two little strangers. In two 
weeks the puppies left in charge of the 
cat were as active and as playful as kit- 
tens would have been at that age. They 
had the use of their legs and barked and 
gamboled about, while the three nursed by 
the mother were still whining and helpless. 
The cat gave her charges her tail to play 
with, and they were always in motion ; 
they soon ate meat, and were fit to be 
taken away from their nurse long before 
the others were. So one day the little 
creatures disappeared, and the cat, who 
possibly fancied herself their mother, could 
not be comforted. She prowled around the 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


121 


house hunting for them, and on the second 
day of their absence she happened to see 
the little spaniel nursing the other puppies. 

‘“Oh,” says Puss, putting up her back, 
‘ it is you, then, who have stolen my chil- 
dren !’ 

“‘No,’ replied the spaniel, with a snarl; 
‘ they are my own flesh and blood.’ 

“ ‘ That will not do,’ said the cat. ‘ I’ll 
take my oath before any justice of the 
peace that you have my two babies.’ 

“ Then there was a desperate struggle, in 
which the poor little spaniel was defeated, 
and the cat walked proudly off with one 
of the puppies, which she took to her own 
bed. Having placed this one in safety, she 
marched back for another battle, and carried 
off a second puppy. Then she was satis- 
fied, and left the bereaved mother in peace 
with her one baby. She knew the exact 
number of puppies that she was entitled 
to, and did not mix them up with her last 
brood of kittens at all.” 

The children thought it a great shame of 
“ that horrid cat,” but what they called her 
“impudence” certainly was amusing; and, 


122 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

as the puppies were well cared for, after 
all, it really did not matter. Perhaps, too, 
the little spaniel soon forgot that she ever 
had more than one child. 

“We shall certainly have to acknowledge 
that the cat is an intelligent animal,” con- 
tinued their governess ; “ and the more 
kindly she is treated, the better she ap- 
pears. But this is the case with most 
animals. Some people seem to think that 
cats are good for nothing but to catch rats 
and mice, and that they do not need care 
at all, but this is a great mistake. A wise 
writer says that there is as much difference 
between a well-fed and carefully- brought-up 
puss and a mere mouser as there is between 
a hungry wolf of the wilds and the honest 
collie that sleeps on the hearth-rug. Prop- 
erly cared for and properly trained, cats 
are cleanly and regular in all their ways. 
They are wonderfully sagacious — quite as 
wise in their way and as high in the scale 
of animal existence as are dogs. They are 
tractable and eminently teachable : they 
can be taught tricks like a poodle. They 
are very fond of other animals as play- 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


123 


mates, such as dogs, guinea-pigs, rabbits 
and birds. They are very fond of their 
young and much attached to children. 
They like their home, but love a kind 
master or mistress.” 

This description was listened to with 
great interest, but it had one bad effect 
which Miss Harson had rather dreaded: 
Malcolm was for taking Rose and Daisy 
in hand at once and teaching them tricks 
of various kinds, in which he expected 
them to be perfect almost immediately ; 
but his sisters held their treasures tightly, 
and the only lesson that could be learned 
at first was, “Give me your paw.” This 
the animals soon did very prettily, and 
Miss Harson was as much interested as 
any one in watching their progress. 

“ I heard of a cat,” said she, “ that would 
go every morning at six o’clock to its mis- 
tress’s door, and if she did not get up 
quickly, open the door and shake hands, 
it would mew so loud as to wake up every 
one else in the house. But it always went 
away satisfied when this little attention had 
been paid. This cat evidently had an idea 


124 I.ITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

of good manners, but she certainly had not 
been taught to practice them so early in the 
morning. 

“A naturalist owned a remarkable cat, 
of which he writes : ‘ I once had a cat who 
always sat up to the dinner-table with me, 
and had his napkin round his neck and his 
plate and some fish. He used his paw, of 
course, but he was very particular, and be- 
haved with extraordinary decorum. When 
he had finished his fish, I sometimes gave 
him a piece of mine. One day he was not 
to be found when the dinner-bell rang, so we 
began without him. Just as the plates were 
put round for the entree puss came rushing 
up stairs and sprang into his chair with two 
mice in his mouth. Before he could be 
stopped he dropped a mouse on to his 
own plate, and then one on to mine. He 
divided his dinner with me, as I had divided 
mine with him.’ ” 

“ Isn’t it funny,” said Malcolm, “ that cats 
always like fish better than anything else ?” 

“ That seems to be a mistake,” replied 
his governess, “ for it is said that if a plate 
of meat and one of fish are placed at the 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


125 



same time before Pussy she will be sure to 
take the meat. She certainly likes fish, 
though, and she is sometimes very good 
at catching them.” 

A cat going a-fishing ! Why, the children 


CAN THIS BE ROSE? 

almost expected to hear next of one talking. 
How did she ever manage it? 

“ It is wonderful,” continued Miss Har- 
son, “ when we consider that cats generally 
dislike even to wet their paws, but quite a 
number of cats have been known to catch 


126 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

fish. An English cat which a gentleman 
had owned for some years caught fish con- 
stantly, and often brought them home alive. 
She also taught a neighbor’s cat to fish, 
and the two were sometimes seen together 
watching by the river-side for their prey. 
At other times they would station them- 
selves on opposite sides of the river and 
keep a sharp lookout for the appearance 
of a moving fin.” 

“ Miss Harson,” asked Clara, “ are wild- 
cats like our pretty pussies, here ?” 

“Very much like them, dear, only larger 
and stronger. They are quite near rela- 
tions that run wild in the woods and moun- 
tains, and are exceedingly fierce and dan- 
gerous. They look very much like small 
tigers, and are of a pale gray color, striped 
down the back and across the sides with 
black. Unless it is very hungry indeed, the 
wildcat never touches any food that has 
not been killed by itself, and, besides mice 
and birds, it also attacks hares, kids and 
lambs. It is a dreadful scourge in the 
poultry-yard, and it does not seem to have 
a single good quality except that like all 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 12 7 

cats, and many other animals, it is devoted 
to its young.” 

“Are there any wildcats in our woods?” 
asked Edith, who was quite ready to be 
frightened. 

“ No, dear; these animals are now found 
only on lonely wooded mountains. There 
they will sit in the trees, sleeping all day 
and killing and eating their prey by night. 
A wildcat will lie motionless among the 
branches, curled up in the forked places 
of the trees ; and when in pursuit of a 
victim, it steals along on its padded feet 
without making the slightest noise, so that 
the animal it attacks is taken too much by 
surprise to escape.” 

“ Miss Harson,” said Clara, presently, 
“ can you tell us what an Angora cat 
looks like ? There was an Angora cat, 
you know, with that mastiff and raven and 
the rat with a bell round his neck that all 
came into the room together and went to 
lie down before the fire.” 

“ The raven didn’t,” corrected Edith ; “ he 
hopped round the room.” 

“ So he did,” replied Clara ; “ but they all 


128 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

lived together and ate soup out of a bowl. 
And I want to know what color the Angora 
was.” 

“ The Angora cat is a very rare and beau- 
tiful animal,” said her governess, “ and its 
long silky hair is silvery in color. Some- 
times the hair is yellowish and sometimes 
olive, but it is always very fine, and gener- 
ally longest on the neck. It also covers the 
tail like a plume. These cats are very deli- 
cate, and gentle in disposition. A natural- 
ist in Paris saw one eat two plates of 
almond-biscuits ; another became fond of 
gin and water, and also liked curry. He 
would eat peas, too, greens and broad 
beans, and, like most cats, he was fond 
of asparagus.” 

“ What other kinds of cats are there, Miss 
Harson ?” asked Malcolm. 

“ There is the Persian cat, with hair even 
longer and more silky than that of the An- 
gora cat, but it is of a different color. It 
has the softest and most glossy of gray fur 
on the upper side and nearly white on the 
under, and it is the most gentle and hand- 
some of cats. The Chinese cat, too, has 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


I29 


very glossy fur, but it is variegated with 
black and yellow ; and, unlike other cats, 
it has hanging ears.” 

“What is a tortoise-shell cat?” asked 
Clara. 

“Its fur is colored much like tortoise- 
shell, being marked with black, white and 
reddish orange, and it is one of the pret- 
tiest varieties of our ordinary cats. It is 
not a common cat in this country, but it is 
said to abound in Egypt and in the South 
of Europe. It has many excellent qualities 
besides its beauty to recommend it : it is 
very elegant though delicate in form, and 
at the same time very active, and is among 
the most attached and grateful of the whole 
race.” 

“ Are there really any cats without tails?” 
asked Malcolm. 

“Yes,” was the reply, “and odd-looking 
creatures they must be. These are the Manx 
cats, from the Isle of Man, and they are in 
no respect handsome animals. A Manx 
cat is a singular object ; its limbs are 
gaunt, its fur is close-set, its eyes are star- 
ing and restless, and it has no tail — that 
9 


130 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

is to say, there is only a sort of knob, as 
though its tail had been amputated. With 
its glaring eyes and its stump of a tail, 
a black one must be a very forbidding 
object. And now I think we have had 
enough of cats for the present.” 

“ Miss Harson,” said Edith, “ do you 
think you could find us just one more story 
about cats? Cat-stories are so nice !” 

“ What insatiable children you are !” ex- 
claimed her governess. “ After all those 
cat-stories, to want another ! Perhaps you 
will be satisfied with this fable : 

“ * I wonder,’ said a sparrow, ‘ what the 
eagles are about, that they don’t fly away 
with the cats ? And, now I think of it, a 
civil question cannot give offence ;’ so the 
sparrow finished her breakfast, went to the 
eagle and said, ‘ May it please Your Roy- 
alty, I see you and your race fly away with 
the birds and the lambs that do no harm, 
but there is not a creature so malignant as 
a cat: she prowls about our nests, eats up 
our young and bites off our own heads. 
She feeds so daintily that she must herself 
be good eating. She is lighter to carry 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


3 


than a bird, and you would get a famous 
grip in her loose fur. Why do you not 
feed upon cats ?’ 

“ ‘Ah !’ said the eagle ; ‘ there is sense in 
your question. I had to hear the worms 
this morning, asking me why I did not 
breakfast upon sparrows. Do I see a 
morsel of worm’s skin on your beak, my 
child ?’ 

“ The sparrow cleaned his bill upon his 
bosom and said, 

“ 4 1 should like to see the worm that 
came with that inquiry.’ 

44 4 Come forward, worm,’ the eagle said. 

44 But when the worm appeared, the spar- 
row snapped him up and ate him. Then 
he went on with his argument against the 
cats.” 

“I know,” exclaimed Malcolm, in great 
enjoyment of this fable : 44 that’s all for the 
cats again, against the birds ; and I like ’em 
ever so much better than I did. But can’t 
you tell us a real long cat-story, Miss Har- 
son ?” 

“ I will tell you something quite true,” 
replied his governess, presently, “about a 


I32 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

cat that lost its life in a heathen country 
because it was supposed to have been sent 
by Satan for the destruction of an idol. 
Quite a tragical story is that of 

“ THE FIRST CAT IN RAROTONGA. 

“It happened a great many years ago, 
when the Rev. Mr. Williams was doing his 
earnest missionary-work in Polynesia, and 
on their first visit to the island of Raroton- 
ga the wife of one of the teachers took a 
favorite cat on shore with her. But Tom 
did not seem to like the looks of things, 
and he made his escape to the mountains. 
Before long one of the heathen priests was 
so impressed by the truth of the religion 
taught by the self-denying missionaries that 
he destroyed his idol. He lived some dis- 
tance from the village, and at midnight — 
so the story says — he was asleep on his 
mat, while his wife sat beside him thinking 
over the strange events of the day. Sud- 
denly the frightened woman saw what 
looked liked two balls of fire glittering in 
the doorway, and heard a very mysterious 
and plaintive sound. Her first act was to 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


133 


wake her husband, and then she began to 
scold him for his rash and wicked folly in 
burning his god, who had come now to be 
revenged upon them in the shape of the 
fires in the doorway. 

“ ‘ Get up and pray !* screamed the ex- 
cited woman. 

“The bewildered husband, opening his 
eyes, saw the threatening lights and heard 
the ominous voice. In his confusion he 
could think of nothing but the alphabet, 
which he shouted at the top of his voice as 
a prayer to be delivered from the malice of 
Satan. This frightened the cat, for it was 
he who was glaring in at the doorway, and 
he fled again to the mountains, leaving the 
pair in an ecstasy of thankfulness over their 
escape. 

“ Had it not been for his newly-discovered 
power of sending the evil one adrift, the 
terrified priest would have returned to his 
idol again, but he and his wife were satis- 
fied now that he had only to repeat the 
alphabet to be quite safe. 

“ Poor Tom, however, was very lonely, 
and he undertook to explore another dis- 


134 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

trict, thinking, perhaps, that he might hap- 
pen on a fur-clad companion. In a very 
retired spot he found a heathen temple 
delightfully shaded by old trees, and, not 
in the least frightened by the hideous 
wooden gods inside, he decided to settle 
himself there for the present. It was cer- 
tainly quiet and peaceful and a good place 
in which to collect his sadly-scattered 
thoughts. The peacefulness, alas ! was 
of short duration, for in a few days the 
priest of the temple came with a number 
of worshipers to present an offering to 
the gods. On opening the door there 
was a strange animal, which greeted them 
with his usual, ‘ Miow!’ in which there was 
nothing alarming. But out rushed the 
priest in dismay, crying wildly to his com- 
panions, 

“ ‘ Here’s a monster from the deep ! A 
monster from the deep !’ 

“ This seemed very hard on Tom, as he 
had always carefully avoided the water, but 
the devotees did not stop to reason about 
it. Hurrying home as fast as they could, 
they collected several hundreds of their 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


135 


brethren, put on their war-caps, brought 
their spears, clubs and slings, blackened 
themselves with charcoal, and, thus equip- 
ped, came shouting on to attack the enemy. 
This was worse than the alphabet, so, quite 
beside himself with terror, Tom sprang at 
the open door, and, darting through the 
crowd of equally-frightened warriors, he 
scattered them in all directions. 

“If Tom had only returned to his moun- 
tain-fastness, he would have been safe after 
this exploit, but he seemed to yearn for 
society and ‘hung round’ the dangerous 
place. In the evening the assembled na- 
tives had a war-dance to keep up their 
spirits, when who should appear but Tom, 
stealing in quietly to see the fun ! Weap- 
ons were instantly seized, and the heroes 
rushed to a fresh attack on the ‘ monster 
of the deep.’ But if not powerful he was 
quick, and he disappeared like a flash from 
their wondering eyes. 

“ Poor Tom ! He seemed resolved to 
cultivate some one’s acquaintance, and in 
the middle of the night, when all was quiet, 
he walked into one of the houses and crept 


136 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

under a coverlet where a whole family were 
lying. He found this so comfortable that 
he went to sleep, but soon his purring 
awoke the master of the house. Thinking 
that some other monster had got into the 
place, he closed the doorways and got 
lights with which to search for the intru- 
der. Tom was very tired with the excite- 
ment of the day, and slept on, when the 
warriors came with their clubs and killed 
him before he was conscious of any dan- 
ger.” 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Clara, as the children 
all groaned at the sad end of “ Tom,” “ I 
do wish those wicked heathen — ” 

“ Could have been converted, dear,” add- 
ed her governess. “Is not that the best 
wish for them? The poor creatures real- 
ly knew no better, and ignorance often 
makes people cruel/’ 

The little girl acknowledged that Miss 
Harson was right, although she would 
have ended her sentence very differently. 
Malcolm, too, was much exercised on the 
subject, and the young lady continued, 
with a smile, 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 1 37 

“I am afraid you will be glad to hear that 
Rarotonga was very much troubled with 
rats — so much so that when Mr. Williams, 
the missionary, undertook to set up a 
blacksmith’s shop to teach the heathen 
useful arts, these destructive little animals 
would gather there at night and eat up 
every particle of leather, so that in the 
morning there was nothing left* of his 
bellows but bare boards. The mission- 
aries, however, were not to be discour- 
aged, and they sent for some pigs and 
some cats.” 

“ What good would the pigs do ?” asked 
Malcolm. 

“They did the good of killing the rats, 
and seemed to find them delicious eating, 
for they destroyed even more than did 
the cats. Both were taken into great fa- 
vor on the island, and poor Tom’s death 
probably came to be looked upon as a 
melancholy accident.” 

“ I liked that story so much, Miss Har- 
son,” said little Edith, “ though it made me 
feel sorry;” and Malcolm and Clara quite 
agreed with her. 


138 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“ We have certainly learned a great deal 
about cats,” continued the young lady, “and 
now let us see what we can learn from them. 
Some one has said, ‘We may learn some 
useful lessons from cats — as, indeed, from 
all animals. Cats may teach us patience 
and perseverance and earnest concentra- 
tion of mind on a desired object as they 
watch for hours together by a mouse-hole 
or in ambush for a bird. In their nicely- 
calculated springs we are taught neither to 
come short through want of mercy nor to 
go beyond the mark in its excess. In their 
delicate walking amidst the fragile articles 
on a table or a mantelpiece are illustrated 
the tact and discrimination by which we 
should thread rather than force our way, 
and in pursuit of our own ends avoid the in- 
juring of others. The curiosity with which 
they spy into all places and the thorough 
smelling which any new object invariably 
receives from them commend to us the 
pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. 
As your cat rubs her head against some- 
thing you offer her which she either does 
not fancy or does not want she instructs 


WHAT COMES AFTER. 


139 


you that there is a gracious mode of re- 
fusing a thing, and as she sits up like a 
bear on her hind legs — which cats will 
often do for a long time — you may see 
the advantage of a winning and engaging 
way, as well when you are seeking a favor 
as when you see fit to decline one. Other 
lessons, too, may be learned from cats, but 
this will give us enough to think about for 
the present.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


SQUIRRELS. 



I T was growing 
warm enough 
now to take observations 
out of doors ; the willow 
tree had put on her soft 
green plumes, although her 
companions still looked 
brown and dry, and there 
was a low whisper in the 
air of “ Spring is coming ! 
Spring is coming !” A few 
notes had been heard from 
the robins and the bluebirds, 
and little sleepy animals whose 
winter-quarters were under 
squirrels, ground and in the holes of the 


140 


SQUIRRELS. 


141 

trees and the fences would run up and out 
“just to see how things looked ” and to 
bask, perhaps, for an hour or two in the 
sunshine. But it was not time yet for 
summer camping-out, and back they 
would go and tuck themselves up for 
another long nap. 

The young naturalists from Elmridge 
were looking about for some of these 
very little neighbors ; and if people look 
long enough and in the right place, they 
are sure to find what they are looking for. 
Miss Harson wished the children to dis- 
cover all they could for themselves, and 
until her pupils called her attention to 
them she did not speak of many things 
that she saw. 

“ There he goes !” exclaimed Malcolm, 
suddenly, one bright morning, as the lit- 
tle party were walking along on the edge 
of a wood. “ Look ! I’m after him !” 

Some one saw the flash of a bushy tail 
as it disappeared, but that was all ; no one 
saw Malcolm until some time afterward, 
when a boy without a hat and very red 
and panting approached the group. 


142 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. * 

“Such a chase as he led me!” said he, 
breathlessly. 

“Such a chase as who led you?” asked 
Miss Harson. “And did the person you 
were in pursuit of take away your hat?” 

“ Oh, Miss Harson !” was the laughing 
reply; “didn’t you know that I went after 
a squirrel ?” 

“ No, I did not know it; I only suspected 
it. But may I ask why you went after a 
squirrel, leaving us all in that sudden way ?” 

“ I beg your pardon, Miss Harson,” said 
Malcolm ; “ I didn’t mean to be impolite, but 
squirrels, you know, will not wait, and I 
went after this one to catch him.” 

“ What did you intend doing with him 
when he was caught?” 

There was no reply ready to this ques- 
tion ; the young gentleman only said, rather 
foolishly, that, “ somehow, boys always go 
after squirrels.” 

“And, ‘somehow,’” said his governess, 
“ they very seldom catch them ; which is a 
good thing both for the boys and for the 
squirrels. We will try to suppose that you 
wished him only to study him closely for a 


SQUIRRELS. 


143 


short time, but our restless little neighbor 
would not have enjoyed this at all, and in 
all probability he would have left the marks 
of his small teeth on your hand. He is a 
good biter and gnawer, for he belongs to 
the Rodentia species ; the meaning of 
which word I have already explained to 
you. I do not see, though,” continued 
the young lady, with what the children 
called her “funny” smile, “what the 
squirrel wanted with your hat.” 

“Why,” replied Malcolm, slowly, for he 
felt rather ashamed of his exploit, “ I sup- 
pose I must have dropped it. I really 
forgot all about it.” 

“Then you had better retrace your steps 
and look for it,” said Miss Harson, “and 
we will go with you ?” 

So the party climbed the fence and wan- 
dered through the wood wherever Mal- 
colm led them, and very delightful they 
found it. There were a few shy clumps 
of hepaticas in bloom, and patches of bright 
green moss here and there, and pink and 
purple flushes on some of the bare-looking 
trees. They were quite excited at one time, 


144 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

for the identical squirrel — at least, so Mal- 
colm declared it to be — flashed like light- 
ning along a piece of fence ; but he had no 
idea of stopping to exchange the civilities 
of life with people of such inquiring minds. 
They could see the pretty striped back of 
black and pale yellow on brownish gray, 
while the throat and the under part were 
snowy white. 

“ It is a chipping-squirrel or chipmunk,” 
said Miss Harson. “ What a pretty creat- 
ure !” 

“ But why does it have such a funny 
name?” asked Edith, who was watching 
for another glimpse of the interesting lit- 
tle animal. 

“It gives a peculiar cry, dear, which 
sounds something like the chirping of 
young chickens, and this is supposed to 
be the reason for its name. It is one of 
the most restless little creatures in exist- 
ence ; it seems to be always in motion, 
and its great delight is to dart in and 
out of a wood and take promenades on 
the edge of the fence, just as you saw it 
now.” 


SQUIRRELS. 



M 5 

“I think it was flying,” said Clara, “in- 
stead of promenading.” 

“ That was probably the slowest gait it 


CHIPPING-SQUIRREL OR CHIPMUNK. 

has,” was the reply. “ There are flying- 
squirrels, but they live in trees, and there 
are large gray squirrels. Quite a variety, 
10 


146 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

you see. But there is Malcolm’s hat on 
that bramble-bush ; and, as it is time to go 
home now, we will have a talk about squir- 
rels this evening.” 

“ Miss Harson,” asked Clara, “ aren’t 
squirrels related to mice ? They look 
like ’em, except their great tails.” 

“There is a similarity,” was the reply, 
“and the dormouse, which is a good deal 
of a squirrel, is looked upon as the con- 
necting-link between them. But the squir- 
rels, unlike their cousins, are provident and 
lay up winter stores of provisions ; which 
habit keeps them from stealing those of the 
farm or the household. Not that they are 
too good to do this when their own supplies 
run short in a severe season, and they will 
appropriate kernels of corn to add to their 
stock, but they are not so generally thievish 
as rats and mice.” 

“Where does Mr. Chipmunk live when 
he is at home ?” asked Malcolm. “ Does 
he take himself off to a hole in a hollow 
tree ?” 

“ His residence is quite a complicated 


SQUIRRELS. 


H 7 


one,” replied his governess, “ being a regu- 
lar burrow made under the shelter of a wall, 
an old tree or a bank. The hole goes 
straight down for nearly a yard, and then 
it makes several uneven windings in a 
slightly upward direction. Two or three 
galleries are added to the principal bur- 
row, and, with all these outlets, the little 
striped squirrel is able to escape from 
most of its enemies. The nest is made 
of different kinds of dried leaves, and here 
Mrs. Squirrel and her babies can feel pret- 
ty safe. The burrow winds so that it is 
very difficult to find the spot where the 
family have established themselves, and 
the thought and the cunning shown by so 
small an animal in the construction of its 
home are- really wonderful.” 

“I wish I could see one,” said Malcolm, 
“but I suppose there wouldn’t be any- 
thing to see but a hole and a squirrel 
whisking down.” 

“That is all that appears to us who are 
above ground, but it means a great deal 
to Mr. Nutcracker. Here our little chip- 
ping friend stores up a large quantity of 


1 48 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

provisions, considering what a small speci- 
men of the tribe he is. He has been call- 
ed ‘a perfect miser in respect of food, gath- 
ering and secreting much more than he can 
possibly eat, and never seeming to be sat- 
isfied so long as another acorn or nut can 
be obtained.’ When he gets a nut with a 
sharp point at the end, he takes care to bite 
off the point before putting the nut into one 
of his cheek-pouches. He can carry four 
nuts at a time — three in the mouth, and one 
between his teeth. The little fellow looks 
very comical when starting in this way with 
a load, both cheeks being so puffed out 
that he seems to be suffering from a badly- 
swollen face. Arrived at his burrow, the 
chipmunk deposits his stores in the galle- 
ries connected with the centre of his dwell- 
ing ; and when these stores have been dis- 
covered, they have been found to consist 
of other articles besides nuts. Carefully 
stored away in one burrow were two quarts 
of buckwheat, some grass-seeds, nearly a 
peck of acorns, some Indian corn and a 
quart of nuts.” 

“ How hard he must have worked,” said 


SQUIRRELS. 


149 


Clara, “ to carry all that, when he could 
take only four nuts at a time !” 

“Yes,” replied Miss Harson, kindly; 
“ and you see, dear, that this little squir- 
rel, too, may teach us a lesson of patience 
and perseverance.” 

“ I know about gray squirrels,” said Edie, 
looking very wise, “ for my muff and Clara’s 
are made of squirrel-fur, and they’re gray.” 

“And so the squirrels from which the fur 
was taken must have been gray too, dear?” 
said her governess, with a smile. “ That is 
quite right, and shows that you have been 
observing, but it does not tell you much 
about the gray squirrels. Indeed, there is 
not much to tell, because the ways of squir- 
rels are so much alike ; but this branch of 
the family does not burrow, as it lives 
principally in old trees — sometimes low 
down, and again higher up. An old tree 
with a large spreading trunk that has a 
natural opening at the bottom is considered 
a desirable residence for a family of gray 
squirrels, and, with comfortable sleeping- 
quarters inside, they will race up and down 
the branches or perch first on one branch 



ing as happy and saucy as it is possible for 
squirrels to look.” 


150 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

and then on another, curling their gray 
brushes of tails over their backs and look- 


GRAY SQUIRREL AND ACORN. 


SQUIRRELS. 


151 

“I’ve seen ’em nibbling their nuts and 
acorns,” said Malcolm, “ sitting up on end 
with their funny tails cocked over their 
heads. And when they drop a nutshell, 
there’s only just one hole in it, through 
which they get out the meat. They don’t 
crack it open.” 

“No,” was the reply; “and the manner 
in which the squirrel manages his nut 
shows a marvelous instinct. He always 
gnaws the hole on that side of the nut 
where he can get at the meat with least 
trouble, and it is always at the blunt end 
of the nut, where most of the kernel lies. 
He never makes the hole larger than is 
really necessary, and he never leaves any 
of the meat inside. Some one who has 
observed these things says, ‘ How does the 
squirrel know, before trying, exactly where 
and how the kernel lies ? There was only 
one nut in a great hoard which showed a 
liability of the squirrel to make a mistake. 
On this he began to gnaw on the wrong 
side, but he was evidently deceived by the 
unusual prominence of the line that passes 
round the nut. He soon discovered his 


152 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

mistake, however, and worked round and 
struck the kernel at the right spot.’ ” 

“Wasn’t that cunning!” exclaimed Clara, 
admiringly. 

“Yes, dear, it was ‘cunning’ in every 
sense of the word ; but Mr. Squirrel 
thoroughly understands his business.” 

“ The little baby-squirrels must be love- 
ly,” said Edith. “ How I should like to see 
one !” 

“Well, dear,” replied her governess, “in 
our walks this summer we will look care- 
fully, and perhaps we shall see one or two 
grasping the limb of a tree. Meanwhile, 
would you like to hear how good an old 
gray squirrel was to some little ones which 
didn’t belong to her?” 

This story promised to be wonderfully 
interesting, and every one settled at once 
into an attitude of deep attention, while 
Miss Harson began : 

“A gentleman who has written a great 
deal that is interesting about the little 
people of the woods — whom he calls ‘our 
country cousins ’ — tells this story of squir- 
rels which lived, it seems, in boxes which a 


SQUIRRELS. 


S3 


kind friend had placed for them in the forks 
of some trees. This friend even fastened a 
suspension-bridge between two trees which 
the squirrels seemed especially to like, and 
he and the naturalist enjoyed watching the 
antics of the little animals on their way back 
and forth over this novel road. Other 
families of squirrels lived in a grove be- 
yond, where people could go as they liked, 
and the young squirrels were often stolen 
from their homes. A boy was carrying off 
two frightened little creatures, when the 
gentlemen caught him and took them away 
from him ; then the rescuers wondered what 
they were to do with their prizes, for they 
did not know where they belonged. One 
squirrel settled the question by darting 
out of the kindly grasp that held him and 
scrambling up a tree, where he lay cling- 
ing to a limb and seemed to think himself 
safe. The other little one was carried to- 
ward the house, uttering a piteous cry, which 
attracted the attention of a mother-squir- 
rel who with her half-grown family occu- 
pied a box in one of the trees. She rush- 
ed out in great excitement and hurried 


154 little neighbors at elmridge. 

down to the bridge, ‘ where, as the doctor 
came underneath, she seemed almost ready 
to jump down on his shoulders, so great was 
her distress at the wailing of the frightened 
youngster he carried. Thinking he could 
do no better, he placed the little one on the 
ground, and we retired to watch what might 
follow. As soon as the old squirrel saw him 
do this — the whole agile tribe have become 
very tame toward us — she ran swiftly down 
the chestnut-trunk to the ground, and thence 
to the side of the lost infant, which she could 
not find in the tall grass without standing on 
her hind legs two or three times and gazing 
carefully around.’ No sooner was the or- 
phan discovered than the motherly heart of 
the old one decided to take it at once to 
her own home. Putting her arms about it 
in the most touching way, she spent a few 
seconds by its side, and then trotted off, 
bidding the stranger follow. But the grass 
was tall and the little one was timid. Again 
and again it would lose the way or give up, 
requiring the older one to go back and call 
to and encourage it. Finally the base of 
the chestnut was reached, and the ascent 


SQUIRRELS. 155 

of its broad trunk and great outstretching 
branch was an easy task. 

“ But the long bridge, with its steep up- 
ward slope at the other end leading direct- 
ly to the cozy home in the box, was the 
worst trial of all to the poor baby, who had 
never seen such an insecure-looking ar- 
rangement, and for some time the trem- 
bling little creature could not be prevailed 
upon to set foot on it. The old squirrel 
started nimbly in advance ; then looking 
back for her helpless charge, she found 
him clinging to the tree-branch, afraid to 
move. She called to him in vain, and then 
went back and soothed him with caresses. 
She licked his fur, and seemed to be per- 
suading him to make the attempt. Finally, 
when she started again, he did crawl on 
slowly after her. 

“In the middle of the bridge the little 
squirrel came to a complete stand-still and 
could not be coaxed to take another step ; 
then his kind guide ran across to her house 
and brought out one of her own children 
to encourage the terror-stricken little stran- 
ger. ‘See!’ she seemed to be saying; 


156 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

‘ here’s a kitten not much bigger than you 
who can run along the bridge as fine as 
anything. You need only to be brave.’ 
There was another start, and, attended 
and coaxed by its two hosts, the foundling 
made a desperate attempt to go on. Once 
it faltered, and then the mother-squirrel 
tried a final expedient. Stretching her 
legs wide apart, she placed herself com- 
pletely over the young one’s flattened 
body, holding on, as it were, and moving 
along with it as it crawled forward, until 
the pluck of the baby revived. The last 
quarter of the bridge was more nimbly 
traversed, and the safety and warmth, and 
doubtless the food, of the new hospice were 
gained. 

“ Afterward the little squirrel which ran 
away was caught and taken to the foot 
of the oak tree — the one at the other end 
of the bridge where the house was — and he 
was speedily invited up without having to 
cross the dreadful passageway that had 
nearly frightened his brother out of his 
wits.” 

“Wasn’t that nice!” exclaimed the chil- 


SQUIRRELS. 


*57 



THE SQUIRRELS AND THE SUNFLOWER. 

dren, in great enjoyment of the story. 
“And that dear old gray squirrel was lovely. 


158 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

I wish the squirrels in our woods would 
do such pretty things.” 

“ It is not every one that sees such things 
when they are done,” said Miss Harson ; 
“ only some patient naturalist who spends 
many of his days in quiet watching and 
observation sees or knows half the actions 
of which animals are capable.” 

“ Do the flying-squirrels look like bats ?” 
asked Clara. 

“ Somewhat, dear, when they are flying. 
Their so-called wings are* formed by a 
membrane which connects the fore paws 
with the hind ones. They have large, soft 
eyes, and are very pretty little creatures. 
Sometimes, however, they will make a 
great commotion in a country-house by 
descending a chimney in the night and 
going on an exploring-tour through the 
rooms. They nibble at things just as mice 
do, and they make a wonderful racket in 
rustling against this and that and overturn- 
ing whatever comes in their way. All sorts 
of noises, thumps and rappings seem to be 
going on when Master Highflyer has made 
one of his descents, and the family turn out 


SQUIRRELS. 


59 


in a body to see what is the matter. But 
before lights can be brought His Squirrel- 
ship has whisked up the chimney again, for 
this commotion has frightened him, and he 
has not the least curiosity to find out what 
is the matter. Sometimes, however, he is 
seen before he has made good his escape, 
and, although he is seldom caught, it is a 
relief to know that there was nothing worse 
at the bottom of all the strange noises.” 

“ I hope they will not come down our 
chimney,” said Edith, looking uneasy. “ Do 
you think they will, Miss Harson ?” 

“ I have never known them to do it, Pet, 
and I do not think that there are any flying- 
squirrels around here ; the chimneys down 
which they fly are closer to the woods than 
ours are. And now,” added Miss Harson, 
“ I have here a very pretty squirrel-story 
which I am sure you will like as much as I 
do. It is to be found in a book called 
Queer Little People .” 

Miss Harson then read the account of 

“THE SQUIRRELS THAT LIVE IN A HOUSE. 

“ Once upon a time a gentleman went 


l6o LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

out into a great forest and cut away the 
trees, and built there a nice little cottage. 
It was set low on the ground and had large 
bow-windows, and so much of it was glass 
that one could look through it on every side 
and see what was going on in the forest. 
You could see the shadows made by the 
fern-leaves as they flickered and wavered 
over the ground, and the scarlet partridge- 
berry and wintergreen-plums that matted 
round the roots of the trees, and the bright 
spots of sunshine that fell through their 
branches and went dancing about among 
the bushes and leaves at their roots. You 
could see the little chipping-sparrows and 
thrushes and robins and birds building their 
nests here and there among the branches, 
and watch them from day to day as they 
laid their eggs and hatched their young. 
You could also see red squirrels and gray 
squirrels and little striped chip-squirrels 
darting and springing about here and there 
and everywhere, running races with one 
another from bough to bough, and chatter- 
ing at one another in the gayest possible 
manner. 


SQUIRRELS. 


161 


“You may be sure that such a strange 
thing as a great house for human beings 
to live in did not come into this wildwood 
without making quite a stir and excitement 
among the original inhabitants. All the 
time it was building there was the Greatest 
possible commotion in the breasts of all the 
older population, and there was not even 
a black ant nor a cricket that did not have 
his own opinion about it, and that did not 
tell the other ants and crickets just what 
he thought the world was coming to in 
consequence. 

“Old Mrs. Rabbit declared that the ham- 
mering and the pounding made her nervous 
and gave her most melancholy forebodings 
of evil times. 

“ ‘ Depend upon it, children,’ she said to 
her long-eared family, * no good will come 
to us from this establishment. Where man 
is, there comes always trouble for us poor 
rabbits.’ 

“The old chestnut tree that grew on the 
edge of the woodland ravine drew a great 
sigh that shook all his leaves, and expressed 
it as his conviction that no good would ever 
11 


1 62 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

come of it — a conviction that at once struck 
to the heart of every chestnut-bur. 

“The squirrels talked together of the 
dreadful state of things that would un- 
doubtedly ensue. 

“ ‘ Why/ said old Father Gray, ‘ it is evi- 
dent that Nature made the nuts for us, but 
one of these great human creatures will 
carry off and gormandize upon what would 
keep a hundred poor families of squirrels 
in comfort.’ 

“ Old Groundmole said it did not require 
very sharp eyes to see into the future, and 
it would just end in bringing down the price 
of real estate in the whole vicinity ; so that 
every decent-minded and respectable quad- 
ruped would be obliged to move away. For 
his part, he was ready to sell out for any- 
thing he could get. 

“The bluebirds and the bobolinks, it is 
true, took more cheerful views of matters, 
but then, as old Mrs. Groundmole observed, 
they were a flighty set, half their time ca- 
reering and dissipating in the Southern 
States, and could not be expected to have 
that patriotic attachment to their native soil 


SQUIRRELS. 163 

that those had who had grubbed in it from 
their earliest days. 

“ ‘ This race of man,’ said the old chest- 
nut tree, ‘is never-ceasing in its restless 
warfare on Nature. In our forest soli- 
tudes, hitherto, how peacefully, how quietly, 
how regularly, has everything gone on ! 
Not a flower has missed its appointed time 
of blossoming or failed to perfect its fruit. 
No matter how hard has been the winter, 
how loud have roared the winds and how 
high have been piled the snow-banks, all 
has come right again in spring. Not the 
least root has lost itself under the snows, 
so as not to be ready with its fresh leaves 
and blossoms when the sun returns to melt 
the frosty chains of winter. We have 
storms, sometimes, that threaten to shake 
everything to pieces — the thunder roars, 
the lightning flashes and the winds howl 
and beat — but when all is past, everything 
comes out better and brighter than before. 
Not a bird is killed, not the frailest flower 
destroyed. But man comes, and in one 
day he will make a desolation that centu- 
ries cannot repair. Ignorant boor that he 


164 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

is, and all-incapable of appreciating the 
glorious works of Nature, it seems to be 
his glory to be able to destroy in a few 
hours what it was the work of ages to pro- 
duce. The noble oak that has been cut 
away to build this contemptible human 
dwellings had a life older and wiser than 
that of any man in this country. That tree 
has seen generations of men come and go. 
It was a fresh young tree when Shakespeare 
was born ; it was hardly a middle-aged tree 
when he died ; it was growing here when 
the first ship brought the white men to our 
shores; and hundreds and hundreds of 
those whom they call bravest, wisest, strong- 
est — warriors, statesmen, orators and poets 
— have been born, have grown up, lived 
and died, while yet it has outlived them all. 
It has seen more wisdom than the best of 
them, but two or three hours of brutal 
strength sufficed to lay it low. Which of 
these dolts could make a tree ? I’d like to 
see them do anything like it. How noisy 
and clumsy are all their movements — chop- 
ping, pounding, rasping, hammering ! And, 
after all, what do they build ? In the forest 


SQ UIRRELS. 


65 


we do everything so quietly ! A tree that 
could not get its growth without making such 
a noise and dust and fuss would be ashamed 
of itself. Our life is the perfection of good 
manners. For my part, I feel degraded at 
the mere presence of these human beings. 
But, alas ! I am old ; a hollow place at my 
heart warns me of the progress of decay, 
and probably it will be seized upon by these 
rapacious creatures as an excuse for laying 
me as low as my noble green brother.’ 

“In spite of all this disquiet about it, the 
little cottage grew and was finished. The 
walls were covered with pretty paper, the 
floors carpeted with pretty carpets, and, in 
fact, when it was all arranged and the gar- 
den-walks were laid out and beds of flowers 
were planted around, it began to be con- 
fessed, even among the most critical, that 
it was not, after all, so bad a thing as was 
to have been feared. A black ant went 
in one day and made a tour of exploration 
up and down, over chairs and tables, up the 
ceilings and down again, and, coming out, 
wrote for the Crickets Gazette an article in 
which he described the new abode as a 


1 66 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

veritable palace. Several butterflies flut- 
tered in and sailed about, and were won- 
derfully delighted, and then a bumble-bee 
and two or three honey-bees, who express- 
ed themselves well pleased with the house, 
but more especially enchanted with the gar- 
den. In fact, when it was found that the 
proprietors were very fond of the rural 
solitudes of Nature, and had come out 
there for the purpose of enjoying them 
undisturbed ; that they watched and spared 
the anemones and the violets and the blood- 
roots and the dog’s-tooth violets and the 
little woolly rolls of fern that began to 
grow up under the trees in spring; that 
they never allowed a gun to be fired to 
scare the birds and watched the building 
of their nests with the greatest interest, — 
then an opinion in favor of human beings 
began to gain ground, and every cricket 
and bird and beast was loud in their 
praise. 

“ * Mamma,’ said Titbit, a frisky young 
squirrel, to his mother one day, ‘ why will 
you not let Frisky and me go into that 
pretty new cottage to play?’ 


SQUIRRELS. 


167 


“ ‘ My dear,’ said his mother, who was a 
very wary and careful old squirrel, ‘how 
can you think of it ? The race of man are 
full of devices for traps and pitfalls, and 
who could say what might happen if you 
put yourself in their power? If you had 
wings, like the butterflies and the bees, 
you might fly in and out again, and so 
gratify your curiosity ; but, as matters 
stand, it’s best for you to keep well out 
of their way.’ 

“ ‘ But, mother, there is such a nice, good 
lady lives there ! I believe she is a good 
fairy, and she seems to love us all so ; she 
sits in the bow-window and watches us for 
hours, and she scatters corn all round at 
the roots of the tree for us to eat.’ 

“ ‘ She is nice enough,’ said the old mother- 
squirrel, ‘if you keep far enough off; but I 
tell you you can’t be too careful.’ 

“ Now, this good fairy about whom the 
squirrels discoursed was a nice little old 
lady that the children used to call ‘Aunt 
Esther ;’ and she was a dear lover of birds 
and squirrels, and all sorts of animals, and 
had studied their little ways till she knew 


1 68 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

just what would please them, and so she 
would every day throw out crumbs for the 
sparrows, and little bits of bread, and wool 
and cotton to help the birds that were build- 
ing their nests, and would scatter corn and 
nuts for the squirrels ; and while she sat at 
her work in the bow-window she would 
smile to see the birds flying away with 
the wool and the squirrels nibbling their 
nuts. After a while the birds grew so 
tame that they would hop into the bow- 
window and eat their crumb's off the 
carpet. 

“ ‘There, mamma!’ said Titbit and Frisky ; 
‘only see! Jenny Wren and Cock Robin 
have been in at the bow-window, and it 
didn’t hurt them, and why can’t we go?’ 

“‘Well, my dears/ said old Mother 
Squirrel, ‘ you must do it very carefully. 
Never forget that you have not wings like 
those of Jenny Wren and Cock Robin.’ 

“So the next day Aunt Esther laid a 
train of corn from the roots of the trees 
to the bow-window, and then from the 
bow-window to her work-basket, which 
stood on the floor beside her, and then 


SQUIRRELS. 


169 

she put quite a handful of corn in the 
work-basket, and sat down by it and seem- 
ed intent on her sewing. Very soon, creep, 
creep, creep, came Titbit and Frisky to the 
window, and then into the room — -just as 
sly and still as could be — and Aunt Esther 
sat like a statue for fear of disturbing them. 
They looked all around in high glee ; and 
when they came to the basket, it seemed 
to them a wonderful little summer-house 
made on purpose for them to play in. 
They nosed about in it, and turned over 
the scissors and the needlebook, and took 
a nibble at the white wax, and jostled the 
spools, meanwhile stowing away the corn 
each side of their little chops till they both 
of them looked as if they had the mumps. 
At last Aunt Esther put out her hand to 
touch them, when whisk ! frisk ! out they 
went and up the trees, chattering and 
laughing, before she had time even to 
wink. But after this they used to come 
in every day ; and when she took corn in 
her hand and held it very still, they would 
eat out of it, and finally they would get into 
her hand, until one day she gently closed her 


170 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

hand over them, and Frisky and Titbit were 
fairly caught. Oh how their hearts did beat ! 
but the good fairy only spoke gently to them, 
and soon unclosed her hand and let them 
go again. So day after day they grew to 
have more faith in her, till they would 
climb into her work-basket, sit on her 
shoulder or nestle away in her lap as she 
sat sewing. They also made long explor- 
ing-voyages all over the house, till finally 
poor Frisky came to an untimely end by 
being drowned in the water-tank at the 
top of the house. 

“ The dear good fairy passed away from 
the house in time, and went to a land where 
the flowers never fade and the birds never 
die ; but the squirrels still continue to make 
the place a favorite resort. 

“ ‘ In fact, my dear,’ said the old Mother 
Red, one winter, to her mate, ‘ what is the 
use of one’s living in this cold hollow tree, 
when these amiable people have built this 
pretty cottage, where there is plenty of 
room for us and them too ? Now, I have 
examined between the eaves, and there is 
a charming place where we can store our 


SQUIRRELS. 


7 1 


nuts, and where we can whip in and out 
of the garret and have the free range of 
the house ; and, say what you will, these 
humans have delightful ways of being 
warm and comfortable in winter.’ 

“ So Mr. and Mrs. Red set up house- 
keeping in the cottage, and had no end 
of nuts and other good things stored up 
there. The trouble of all this was that, as 
Mrs. Red was a notable body and got up 
to begin her housekeeping operations and 
woke up all her children at four o’clock in 
the morning, the good people often were 
disturbed by a great rattling and fuss in 
the walls while yet it seemed dark night. 
Then sometimes, too, Mrs. Squirrel would 
give her husband vigorous curtain-lectures 
in the night, which made him so indignant 
that he would rattle off to another quarter 
of the garret to sleep by himself ; and all 
this broke the rest of the worthy people 
who built the house. What is to be done 
about this we do not know. What would 
you do about it? Would you let the squir- 
rels live in your house, or not? When our 
good people come down of a cold winter 


172 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

morning, and see the squirrels dancing and 
frisking down the trees, and chasing each 
other so merrily over the garden-chair 
between them, they look so jolly and jaunty 
and pretty that they almost forgive them for 
disturbing their night’s rest. And so it goes 
on, but how 'long the squirrels will rent the 
cottage in this fashion I’m sure I dare not 
undertake to say.” 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOME MOUND-BUILDERS: MOLES. 



S the little party 
of naturalists 
were one bright, 
sunny afternoon 
crossing a field 
Edith exclaimed, 
“Oh, Miss Har- 
son, look at the 
an t-hills ! Ever 
so many of ’em !” 

“Yes,” added 
Clara, “and here 
are more of ’em, 
all along in a 
line.” 

“They are not ant-hills,” replied their 
governess, who was looking carefully at the 
little mounds, “ but mole-hills — the work of 


173 


174 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

a little neighbor who lives under ground and 
spends most of his life hunting for earth- 
worms and grubs. This line of raised 
earth marks where he has worked his way 
through in quest of his favorite dainties, for 
Mr. Mole is a terrible borer and does not 
mind destroying any roots and plants that 
come in his way.” 

“ What does a mole look like, Miss Har- 
son?” asked Malcolm. “Isn’t he a little 
black, fat-looking creature with a pointed 
nose and flat paws that seem to grow right 
out of his body without any legs ?” 

“ That is a very good word-portrait,” was 
the reply, “but the mole’s color, which is 
usually grayish black, varies sometimes to 
a cream-color. His beautiful silky fur is 
quite different from that of any other ani- 
mal, being set straight up on the skin like 
the pile of velvet, and it feels so much like 
velvet that the owner has been named ‘ the 
little gentleman in the velvet coat.’ A live 
mole is not often seen, as the animal prefers 
keeping himself beneath the surface of the 
earth. As we are not likely to see the 
mole that made this raised line of earth, 


SOME MOUND-BUILDERS. 1 75 

we will read what is said of the mole in 
our book: 

“‘No one can examine the mole without 
admiration of the manner in which it is fit- 
ted for its under-ground life. Its silky hair, 
set perpendicularly on its skin, offering no 
resistance to the sides of its galleries and 
not retaining the soil that might stop its 
progress ; its broad, shovel-like claws, 
slightly turned outward like the mould- 
board of a plough ; its pointed and flexi- 
ble snout ; its little sharp teeth, so well 
adapted for seizing and securing the 
worms on which it feeds ; its impercepti- 
ble eyes, hidden in the depth of its fur, — all 
are so suitable to the habits of the animal 
that we cannot avoid admiring them.’ ” 

“Are dead moles ever seen?” asked 
Clara. “And do people kill them?” 

“ Yes ; they are often killed because of 
the damage they do — or are supposed to 
do — in the garden ; and in England they 
have men who make a regular business 
of catching moles. Traps are laid which 
squeeze the animal, and a very slight 
squeeze, it is said, will destroy him. Here 


176 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

is a picture of the queer-looking little creat- 
ure in the book I have brought out with us 
to-day.” 

All gathered around to look at a fat little 
animal with a very short tail, and the gen- 



THE MOLE. 


eral opinion was that it was “ no beauty.” 
Edith declared that it looked like a pig. 

“ I see some slight resemblance myself,” 
replied her governess, “ and the mole in this 
picture certainly looks as fat and lazy as a 


SOME MOUND-BUILDERS. 1 77 

pig. He is really a hard worker, though, 
and he delves and digs for three hours 
without stopping ; then he rests for three 
hours, and then goes at it again.” 

“ That’s a queer way of doing,” said Mal- 
colm, “ but our ‘ little neighbors ’ are a funny 
lot altogether. Isn’t the mole blind, Miss 
Harson ?” 

“ No, though he might almost as well be. 
He really has two mites of eyes hidden away 
in his fur, but he cannot see much with them, 
and, fortunately, he does not need them in 
his daily work.” 

“Is he always digging?” asked Clara. 
“ I should think he’d make a great many 
holes in the ground. What does he want 
of ’em all ?” 

“ I suppose,” replied Miss Harson, “ that 
the mole may be said to be ‘ always digging,’ 
as he works day and night in his three- 
hours fashion, but these little heaps of 
earth called ‘ mole-hills ’ are only the marks 
of his journeys after earthworms. The real 
digging on which he spends so much labor 
is for the house where he lives, and, although 
it makes quite a hill on the outside, it is not 
12 


178 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

often seen, because the animal always puts 
it under the shelter of a tree or bush or the 
side of a bank — anywhere away from paths 
and roads. He is very much afraid of 
being conspicuous, but he gets as near 
as he can to the water, for he seems to be 
always thirsty. He will even dig wells in 
dry weather, and, no matter how far he 
has to go, he will dig perseveringly till 
he reaches water.” 

“And yet he looks so stupid !” said Mal- 
colm. 

“ He has a long head, though, and under- 
stands perfectly how to manage for himself 
and his family. We will look at some en- 
gravings of his under-ground residence this 
evening, and we shall then find that he is 
anything but stupid.” 

The spring evenings were still a little 
chilly, and the fire felt pleasant; a small 
table with two or three books on it was 
drawn up beside Miss H arson, and her 
eager little audience were grouped around 
her. 

“ Now,” said the young lady, displaying a 



animal who does his shoveling in the 
dark ?” 


SOME MOUND-BUILDERS. 1 79 

picture of a mole’s castle, “what do you 
think of such work as this for a stupid 


MOLE-HILL UNCOVERED. 


l80 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

The children exclaimed over it in great 
surprise as they saw the regularity and in- 
genuity of the work, where the large mound 
had been cut through the middle to show 
the different passages and apartments. It 
was difficult for the little Kyles to believe 
that a small, nearly-blind animal could have 
done it. 

“ In the same book,” continued Miss Har- 
son, “ Mr. Wood says of this wonderful lit- 
tle burrower: ‘This extraordinary animal 
does not merely dig tunnels in the ground 
and sit at the end of them, but forms a com- 
plicated subterranean dwelling-place with 
chambers, passages, and other arrange- 
ments of wonderful completeness. It has 
regular roads leading to its feeding- 
grounds, establishes a system of commu- 
nication as elaborate as that of a modern 
railway, and is an animal of varied accom- 
plishments. It can run tolerably fast, it can 
fight like a bulldog, it can capture prey un- 
der or above ground, it can swim fearlessly, 
and it can sink wells for the purpose of 
quenching its thirst. It is indeed a most 
interesting animal, and our comparatively 


SOME MOUND-BUILDERS. l8l 

small knowledge of its habits gives promise 
of much that is yet to be made known.’ ” 

“I do wonder,” said Malcolm as he close- 
ly studied the wonderful burrow, “ how he 
manages to cut it all out so evenly, and to 
get all these winding passageways right? 
What fun it would be to put a mole in a 
great glass case with plenty of earth, and 
see him go to work at his house !” 

“ But how could you see him, when he 
buries himself in the earth to do it? It 
seems that he begins operations by heap- 
ing up a mound of earth, which is beaten 
solidly together, as so many passages 
have to be made that the mound must be 
very compact to keep the soil from falling 
in. Having thus made a beginning, Mr. 
Mole next runs a circular gallery near the 
top of his mound, and another near the 
bottom, both of which are seen in the illus- 
tration. Then the galleries are connected 
by five short passages, which are here too. 
The little architect now works his way into 
the centre of the mound and digs a round 
hole, which he connects with the lower gal- 
lery by three passages. A quite large 


182 little neighbors at elmridge. 

passage called the mole’s high-road is then 
dug outside the nest, and it is connected 
with the round hole by a gallery dipping 
under the circular galleries and entering 
the lower part of the round hole. The 
last thing is to dig a great number of runs 
branching out from the nest in all direc- 
tions, and all opening into the lower circu- 
lar gallery. The object of all these passages 
is to enable the animal, if surprised in its 
nest, to dive through its central chamber, 
and so reach the high-road at once ; or it 
can slip through either of the short gal- 
leries and escape into any of the numerous 
branching runs.” 

Malcolm and Clara had listened so atten- 
tively to their governess’s description that 
with the picture before them they were able 
fully to understand the various ‘ins and 
outs ’ of Mole Castle ; but it could scarcely 
be expected of Edith, who hoped soon 
to hear something more amusing. 

“I suppose,” said Clara, “that the round 
hole in the middle is the parlor, where the 
family sit?” 

This made her sister laugh, as she imag- 


SOME MOUND-BUILDERS. 1 83 

ined Papa and Mamma Mole and the little 
moles sitting up on their hind feet and look- 
ing proper. 

But Miss Harson replied, laughing, 

“ No, it is the mole’s sleeping-apartment, 
and it is furnished principally with grass 
and leaves. It is so well protected in the 
middle of this wonderful fortress that the 
industrious little builder must rest there 
delightfully after his hard work.” 

“ It must be dismal, though,” said Mal- 
colm, “ living in the dark all the time.” 

“ It would be dismal for us, because we 
are made to enjoy air and sunshine, but 
the mole is contented and happy under 
ground. Take him out of his beloved 
cavern, and he is wretched as well as awk- 
ward and clumsy. The only change he 
desires is to the water, for, strange as it 
seems for a burrowing animal, he can 
swim well, his queerly-shaped fore paws, 
which are like broad, six-fingered hands, 
helping him along admirably in this exer- 
cise. Sometimes his dwelling is inundated 
by a sudden rise of the river near which he 
is fond of placing it, and to save his young 


1 84 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

family the animal will not hesitate to cross 
a wide river.” 

“I think the mole is very nice,” said 
Clara, approvingly, “and not stupid a 
bit.” 

“ Do you think he’s nice,” asked her 
brother, rather provokingly, “ when he’s 
hunting earthworms?” 

“Just as nice,” replied his governess, 
“as you are when you are satisfying your 
hunger on what you like best. Besides, 
earthworms and grubs may become too 
numerous, and it is well for us that they 
have such active enemies to keep them in 
check. The mole is a very hungry creat- 
ure, and cannot go long without eating; 
it is said that to do without food for six 
hours would certainly kill it. Worms are 
its principal food, and it is in search of 
them that it drives these galleries under 
the earth. On hearing or feeling the agi- 
tation of the earth caused by the mole, the 
worms make their way to the surface, in 
order to escape their enemy ; taking advan- 
tage of this habit, certain birds stamp upon 
the ground to delude the worms into the 


SOME MOUND-BUILDERS. 1 85 

idea that a mole is coming. In the same 
way, if anglers are in the want of worms, 
they either stamp on the ground or work 
the earth about with a spade, and capture 
the worms as they come out of their 
holes.” 

“Is that really true, Miss Harson, about 
the birds?” asked Clara. “ Do they stamp 
on the ground to make the worms come 
up?" 

“ I have no doubt that it is true, because 
an excellent naturalist tells us so ; and the 
more we study the habits of animals, the 
more we shall find that they show a won- 
derful amount of cunning in securing their 
food. The mole hunches its back in a very 
curious manner when it eats, and pushes 
the worm into its mouth with its fore paws. 
It is said, also, to eat in a perfect fury, as 
thou or h suffering from starvation.” 

“What does it do in winter,” asked Mal- 
colm, “ when there are not any worms ?” 

“Above the surface of the ground, you 
mean, or even near to it ; for, although an 
earthworm never shows himself in winter, 
the whole tribe are there, down beneath 


1 86 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

the frozen earth. So what the mole does 
is to burrow down until he gets at them, 
and for this reason his hardest work is 
in winter, as digging into frozen earth is 
very different from shoveling it out when 
soft with summer rains. This little fat, 
lazy-looking animal has to work hard to 
live, and, besides feeding himself, when he 
does not destroy roots and plants he is very 
useful to the farmer and the gardener in 
draining the soil. The farmers do not 
thank him for it, however, but always 
destroy him when it is possible. He is 
the king of burrowers, and the rapidity 
with which he sinks into the ground is 
something surprising. A naturalist who 
wished to watch the movements of a live 
mole hired a mole-catcher to get him one 
and put it into a tub half full of earth. 
‘ In this tub,’ he says, ‘ the mole was placed, 
and instantly sank below the surface of the 
earth. It was fed by placing large quanti- 
ties of earthworms or grubs in the cask, 
and the number of worms that this single 
mole devoured was quite surprising. So 
far as regards actual inspection, this ar- 


SOME MOUND-BUILDERS. 187 

rangement was useless, for the mole never 
would show itself ; and when it was wanted 
for observation, it had to be dug up. But 
many opportunities for investigating its 
manners were afforded by taking it from 
its tub and letting it run on a hard surface, 
such as a gravel-walk. There it used to 
run with some speed, continually grubbing 
with its long and powerful snout, trying to 
discover a spot sufficiently soft for a tun- 
nel. More than once did it succeed in 
partially burying itself, and had to be drag- 
ged out again at the risk of personal dam- 
age. At last it contrived to slip over the 
side of the gravel-walk, and, finding a patch 
of soft mould, sank with a rapidity that 
seemed the effect of magic. Spades were 
put into requisition, but a mole is more than 
a match for a spade, and the pet mole was 
never seen more.’ ” 

“What a shame !” said Edie, in great 
sympathy with the naturalist; and she even 
called it “a horrid little thing for running 
away, when the gentleman was so kind 
to it.” 

“ But suppose that it had a family to see 


1 88 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

to?” replied her governess. “And if it 
had not, it could scarcely be expected to 
stay in a tub to amuse even a kind man 
when it had a chance of returning to its 
beautiful under-ground castle. I think the 
little mole was right, and I am sure that in 
the same circumstances we should all do the 
same thing.” 

“ Miss Harson,” asked Clara, “ do people 
make anything of mole-fur? You said it 
was so pretty and soft.” 

“ It is very beautiful, and articles have 
sometimes been made of it. But, besides 
being very expensive, it does not wear 
well ; and it has a very strong smell, which 
lasts for years — probably as long as the 
fur does. Yet the mole is a very clean 
animal ; and when the loose earth falls 
upon his fur while he is at work, he gives, 
every now and then, a sharp, powerful 
shake that throws it all off at once. If it 
were not for the endless tunnels he makes 
where people do not want tunnels, he could 
probably keep his skin on his own back.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 


A TINY RELATION: THE SHREW. 

“ ^ \ TELL,” said Miss Harson, smiling 

V V at the commotion, “what is it?” 

The youthful explorers had gone on a 
little ahead of their governess to see what 
they could find, and now they were clus- 
tered in a state of great excitement around 
a large stone which Malcolm was carefully 
lifting up. 

“The cunnino^est little mouse — ” begfan 

o o 

Clara ; but as she spoke a tiny animal 
rushed out with a little squeak, and disap- 
peared in some matted leaves near by. 

“ That is the way the other fellow did,” 
said Malcolm. “ There must be a nest of 
’em in here. What kind of mice are they, 
Miss Harson?” 

“There is a burrow of them,” replied the 
young lady, “and they are not mice, but 
moles. If this little animal had not been 


189 


I90 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

in such a hurry, you would have noticed its 
long pointed snout like that of the mole. 
It is often called ‘ shrew-mouse ’ as well as 
‘ shrew-mole ’ and ‘ shrew but a naturalist 
says that it bears a very close relationship 
to the hedgehog and is a distant connexion 



THE WATER-SHREW. 


of the mole, but with the mouse it has noth- 
ing to do.” 

“ It was so pretty !” said Edith, with a 
sigh. “ I wish it hadn’t run away.” 

“ It didn’t look larger than a beetle,” said 
Malcolm, “but how it did scamper! I won- 
der what became of it?” 

“It is the tiniest quadruped living,” re- 


A TINY RELATION. 


I 9 I 

plied his governess — “ even smaller than 
the field-mouse ; but the shrew is a great 
burrower, and here, under the stone, you 
can see a number of little channels which 
meet in a larger passageway in the middle. 
At the other end of one of these channels, 
which leads into a tunnel, our new acquaint- 
ance — who does not seem to care for natural 
history — whisked himself off in safety to 
some retreat under the roots of a tree. 
He might have stayed a little longer, con- 
sidering how seldom one of his family is 
seen in public ; but the next best thing 
for us to do is to examine the pictures of 
him which we shall find in our favorite 
books, and learn all that we can about 
him in that way. When autumn comes, 
we shall probably find some dead ones 
on the ground near their burrows, and we 
can see how well these compare with the 
descriptions.” 

“What makes them dead?” asked Edith. 
“ Do cats kill ’em ?” 

“ I do not think a cat would be able to 
catch them, dear, and she would probably 
eat them if she did. They seem to come 


192 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

out and die because their life has reached 
its end ; at least, no one has found out yet 
the reason for their dying.” 

“Here he is,” said Malcolm, “snout and 
all. How pointed it is! And he can’t run 
away out of the picture; that’s one comfort.” 

“ He certainly would run if he could,” 
replied his governess, “ for to run is his 
natural instinct.” 

“ There are two pictures of shrews,” said 
Clara, who had been examining the illustra- 
tions in the book ; “ one is called ‘ shrew- 
mouse,’ and the other ‘water-shrew.’” 

“And what difference do you see between 
them ?” 

“Why, the shrew-mouse looks a little 
smaller and has a shorter tail and shorter 
legs.” 

“ The water-shrew is generally called 
‘ musk-rat,’ and we will find out something 
about him when we have finished with the 
land-shrew. This small animal is not more 
than two and a half inches long, tail and 
all, and is very much the color of the com- 
mon mouse. His nose and teeth, however, 


A TINY DELATION. 


193 


proclaim that he is related to the moles and 
the bats, and almost everything about him 
shows that he is made for probing without 
injury into all sorts of crannies, and for 
forcing a way through leaves, tangled 
grass and loose soil. His feet, neverthe- 
less, though compact and strong, are not 
such a shovel as the moles carry, but are 
mouselike.” 

“ It looked exactly like a mouse,” said 
Malcolm, “ when it ran out from the stone, 
and in the picture it doesn’t seem a bit like 
a mole.” 

“ It is a cousin, however, of that animal, 
and its under ground works alone proclaim 
that it belongs to the same family. In 
Country Cousms we read that ‘ in the moist 
woods of the South and the West you can 
hardly turn over a log or an old fence-rail 
which will not exhibit underneath it a main 
passageway and many side-tracks traversed 
by these small pioneers in search of their 
food, such dark places serving them as a 
sort of market. When they leave the 
shelter of logs and boulders, they very 
rarely step out into daylight, however 

13 


194 LITTLE neighbors at elm ridge. 

often they may go abroad upon the sur- 
face during their nocturnal rambles, but 
move under cover of the leaves and bend- 
ing herbage, pressing them aside, or, if the 
earth be loose, descending and tunneling 
through it for long distances, until in- 
numerable slender galleries are formed. 
They are not dug, but the mould is push- 
ed aside, the pointed snout and the nimble 
toes of the miner making an entrance into 
which the powerful little shoulders push 
with surprising speed.’ ” 

“ Does the shrew eat earthworms,” asked 
Clara, “ like the mole ?” 

“Yes, but it seems to eat many other 
things, too, and in its under-ground winter 
larder may be found grain and seeds and 
dead insects, while in summer, whenever it 
can catch them, it devours young mice, 
frogs and snails, eggs, and even the little 
fledglings of birds which build their nests 
on the ground.” 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Edith, in disgust, “ it 
doesn’t seem at all cunning now. To 
think of its eating little birds !” 

“ I should suppose,” said Clara, who was 


A TINY RELATION. 


195 


equally disgusted, “that it would be too 
small to eat mice and birds, it is such a 
mite itself.” 

“ It manages the very small ones,” re- 
plied their governess, quite amused by this 
show of indignation ; “but don’t forget the 
fable I read you about the sparrow’s advis- 
ing the eagle to eat cats. The storehouse 
of our little friend is often found inside a 
heap of stones, under a great log or in a 
decayed stump, but he usually prefers a 
burrow a foot or more under ground. 
Here a goodly quantity of seeds and in- 
sects is deposited for winter use, and many 
of the beetles he manages to kill are quite as 
large as himself, like the one in our picture, 
which happens to be called a ‘ mole-cricket.’ 

“ He must be a fierce little creature,” ob- 
served Malcolm. 

“Yes; all the members of the mole spe- 
cies are great fighters, and this small speci- 
men is furnished with such powerful jaws 
for his size — well filled, too, with curved 
teeth having cutting-edges — that no worm 
is so slippery, no beetle so well armed, 
that the shrew cannot seize and hold and 


196 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

crush it. Two strange shrews cannot 
meet without fighting, and those which 



THE MOLE-CRICKET. 


have been put in cages are fiercer than 
any. To touch them with a stick puts 
them into a rage, and with an angry 


A TINY RELATION. 


I 9 ; 


scream they will snap at the stick. A 
gentleman put into a cage with a short- 
tailed shrew a meadow-mouse twice its size, 
which at once attacked its small neighbor ; 
but if the mouse anticipated an easy vic- 
tory, it was mistaken. The little knight of 
the burrow stood straight up and fought 
fiercely; and if it did not pursue its ad- 
versary when the latter moved off, neither 
did it ever retreat. The instant the mouse 
came close again it sprang at him, guided, 
apparently, wholly by hearing and touch. 
This courage will account for this small 
creature attacking and conquering frogs 
and other animals far larger than itself, as 
it is well known to do.” 

“ What great long hairs he has on his 
nose !” said Edie, looking with fresh inter- 
est at the bold little animal. “ Isn’t that a 
funny place for hairs to grow, Miss Har- 
son ?” 

“ Yes, dear, it certainly is ; but the shrew 
is ‘funny’ altogether. He is the most ac- 
tive little object imaginable, and is scarcely 
seen before he has vanished, as you know 
from your experience this morning. While 


I98 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

he is rushing in this headlong fashion, 
scarcely able to see where he is going — 
for his eyes are as much hidden in fur as 
are those of the mole — these long and 
sensitive hairs, or whiskers, make up for 
his imperfect sight : they serve him as feel- 
ers. When at full speed he will turn aside 
just before reaching an object against which 
he seemed about to strike, and which cer- 
tainly had not been seen. No doubt he 
gains knowledge through these feelers.” 

“ How tiny the baby-shrews must be,” 
said Clara, “ when the old ones are so 
little !” 

“There are from four to six of the little 
dots,” replied Miss Harson, “which are 
born in a ball-like nest in the midst of the 
deepest burrow. They are like young 
mice — naked and blind — and until they are 
half grown they do not get what sight they 
have. These things have been discovered 
by naturalists who have succeeded in keep- 
ing the queer little creatures for a while in 
captivity to study their ways. But some- 
thing alw r ays happened to the prisoners 
before long, and often they died of fright ; 


A TINY R ELATION. 


199 


which seems like a contradiction to the 
courage they show in attacking animals 
larger than themselves. They seem to 
have a horror of strange places, and are 
most courageous when near their burrows. 
A naturalist had a family of father and 
mother shrew and little ones in a box. 
Papa Shrew would bring grasshoppers and 
crickets to his wife while she was nursing 
the children, and they seemed very fond of 
each other. But this did not prevent the 
gentleman from running away as soon as 
he got a chance, and then another pair of 
captive shrews got into the box and ate up 
both mother and little ones.” 

“ Then they didn’t mind making a meal 
of their own relations?” said Malcolm. 

“ It seems not, but the enemies which 
usually pursue this little animal— such as 
weasels, skunks, foxes, cats,, dogs, various 
serpents and some large birds — are said to 
be unwilling to eat it after they have struck 
it down, because it carries in a gland on 
each side a musky substance that smells 
and tastes so disagreeably as to disgust 
them with the banquet. A naturalist thinks 


200 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

that this may be one reason why dead 
shrews are found in the woods and the 
fields.” 

“Well,” exclaimed Malcolm, “the skunk 
needn’t put on airs ! What smells worse 
than he does, I should like to know ?” 

“I really cannot tell you,” was the laugh- 
ing reply, “ for I know of nothing equal to 
him ; and it does seem ridiculous enough 
that he should object to any other smell. 
He is like some people, I am afraid, who 
judge others for the very faults which they 
themselves display.” 

“That’s so!” responded Malcolm, appre- 
ciatively. 

“ A friend of animals says of our water- 
shrew that it may be found in many run- 
ning streams if the eyes are sharp enough 
to observe it, and is well worth examina- 
tion. ‘As it dives and runs along the 
bottom of the stream it appears to be 
studded with tiny silver beads or glittering 
pearls, on account of the air-bubbles that 
adhere to its fur. I have seen a whole 
colony of shrews disporting themselves in 
a little brooklet not two feet wide, and 


A TINY RELATION. 


201 


so had a good opportunity of inspecting 
them.’ ” 

“ Do you think there are any in our 
brook?” asked Malcolm. 

“I should think there might be,” was the 
reply, “although this was written in Eng- 
land. But we shall have an opportunity 
this summer of finding out. ‘These little 
water-shrews/ continues the writer, ‘are 
most active in their sports and their work, 
for which latter purpose they make regu- 
lar paths along the banks, and, as to their 
sport, they chase one another in and out 
of the water, making as great a splash as 
possible, whisk round roots, dodge behind 
stones, and act altogether just like a set of 
boys let loose from the schoolroom.’ ” 

Oh, if they could only see such comical 
performances ! Did Miss Harson really 
think they ever would? To which Miss 
Harson could only reply that they might 
after much patient study and watching, and 
that they would all try which could see any- 
thing of the kind first. 

“ Do the shrews live in the water ?” ask- 
ed Clara. 


202 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“ No,” replied her governess ; “ they only 
play there. For they too are famous bur- 
rowers, some of their tunnels being twenty 
feet long. And their castles are built on 
the very edge of the water. The one en- 
trance is below the water, and the burrow 
rises upward ; so that at the end of it the 
animal is on dry ground. Instinct teaches 
it not to build too close to the surface of 
the earth, lest the roof of its house fall in 
and display the interior to the unwelcome 
light.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


HANDS OFF!— THE HEDGEHOG. 

HE mole,” said Miss Harson, “has 



X another relation besides the shrew, 
and that is the hedgehog. Hedgehogs 
are not at all common here, although num- 
bers of them are found in other parts of our 
State, as well as in more northern and west- 
ern States ; but we might just happen, in 
one of our walks, to meet a queer- looking 
ball with leaves sticking to it, and it would 
be well to know what to call it.” 

“ Is that the way the hedgehog looks,” 
asked Malcolm — “ like a ball ?” 

“ He would be likely to look like that if 
we came unexpectedly upon him, but his 
proper shape is like this in the picture. 
The most noticeable thing about the hedge- 
hog is the queer covering of sharp spines 
which takes the place of fur on his upper 
part, and the strong muscle along the sides 


203 


204 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

by means of which the animal can curl itself 
into a ball and remain in that position. 
When the hedgehog fears an enemy, it 
tucks its head under its breast, at the same 



THE HEDGEHOG. 


time drawing in its legs, and rolls itself up 
into a ball.” 

“ But doesn’t he hurt himself with his 
prickles,” asked Malcolm, “ when he 
doubles over like that? 

“ He would not feel very comfortable,” 
was the reply, “ if the prickles covered 
him all over, but the under part of his 
body is clothed with long, thick fur. Some 
one wrote of an envious man who lived 


* Like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, 
Tormenting himself with his bristles.’ 


HANDS OFF l 


205 


But our hedgehog rolls up the right way, 
and shows a vast amount of sense in choos- 
ing the times for doing it. What do you 
think, for instance, of one of these queer 
little animals — who wished to get down 
from a high wall — coolly throwing itself 
over and rolling into a ball as it fell ? It 
knew, you see, that its spiny armor would 
save it from being hurt ; and when it land- 
ed on the ground, it would stay there for a 
few moments, and then unfold itself and 
run off.” 

The children declared this to be a delight- 
ful little hedgehog, and another animal was 
secretly added to the list of those which 
Malcolm proposed to catch and tame dur- 
ing the summer. 

“The only enemy against which the 
hedgehog’s prickly coat of mail seems to 
be of little use is the fox. That artful 
animal is said to attack his victim near a 
pool of water and roll him in it, when the 
live ball puts out its head — probably to 
see what is going on — and Mr. Fox snaps 
it up in an instant.” 

“ I hate foxes,” said Clara, who was 


20 6 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

thinking of all the fables she had heard 
about them ; “ they’re always doing hor- 
rid things.” 

“After a while,” replied her governess, 
“you will probably think that the hedge- 
hog too does ‘horrid things.’ He has 
been accused, though, of doing a great 
many things that he does not do, and 
could not do if he wanted to. In old 
times ignorant people — and others, too, 
who should have known better — declared 
that the hedgehogs would steal the cows’ 
milk at night when the cows were reposing 
in the meadows, and rob orchards by roll- 
ing themselves over apples and other fruit 
that had fallen from the trees and carry 
them off sticking to their spines. In some 
places it was even believed that they climb- 
ed the trees and knocked down the apples.” 

“Well,” said Malcolm, “I should like to 
see a hedgehog climbing a tree ; I should 
think he could do it about as easily as a 
mole could.” 

“The idea is utterly preposterous, but 
scarcely more so than to say that the little 
animal helps himself to eggs by rolling on 


HANDS OFF! 


20 7 

them, and thus sticking them on his back. 
He might carry off egg-shells in this fash- 
ion, but, as to the egg itself, there would 
riot be enough of it left, after making holes 
in it, to pay him for his trouble. Apples 
may sometimes have been found sticking 
on the hedgehog’s spines, just as leaves 
often are, from his habit of rolling himself 
over ; but that is no reason for saying that 
he eats apples and leaves. The moment 
he is alarmed at anything he rolls himself 
up, no matter where he may happen to be, 
and he does this too quickly to shake off 
anything that may get fastened on his 
spines. But if he does not carry eggs 
about on his back, he is not quite guilt- 
less of eating the eggs of birds and of 
domestic poultry whenever he can get 
them. He will also eat raw meat and 
mice, devouring six of the latter at a 
meal.” 

“Why, in this picture he looks too little,” 
said Edith — “ almost like a mouse himself.” 

“ He is not very big, as he measures only 
about nine inches in length when full grown ; 
and his funny little head and ears have a 


208 little neighbors at elmridge. 

very innocent expression. He will eat in- 
sects, slugs, mice, frogs, eggs, fruit, roots, 
and — Something else which is not so 
nice. This something else is snakes.” 

“ Oh ! oh !” exclaimed each astonished 
hearer, remembering the “ horrid things ” 
Miss Harson had promised them. 

“Yes; that is really true. An English 
naturalist who had heard that hedgehogs 
would eat snakes proved it by putting 
these two creatures together in a box 
where he could watch them. The snake 
at first kept creeping quietly round its 
prison, but the hedgehog, who was rolled 
up, did not see it. The animal was taken 
up and laid on the snake, and as the rep- 
tile began to crawl the hedgehog started 
and opened its hard shell a little way. As 
soon as it saw what was under it, it gave 
the snake a hard bite and rolled itself up 
again. Presently it opened a second time 
and gave another bite, rolling up again im- 
mediately, as if afraid of an attack. Again 
it opened very carefully, and a third bite 
broke the snake’s back. When this was 
accomplished, the hedgehog placed itself 


HANDS OFF! 


209 


beside the snake and passed the whole of 
the body through its jaws, breaking the 
bones at short intervals until the reptile 
was quite motionless. The hedgehog now 
began at the tip of the snake’s tail and ate 
upward, as one would eat a radish, without 
intermission, but slowly, till half the snake 
was devoured. It then stopped merely 
because it could eat no more, but dur- 
ing the night the balance of the snake 
was finished.” 

The little girls were much disgusted, and 
their brother mischievously asked them if 
this was a “delightful little hedgehog” 
now. 

“ Because,” he added, “ I don’t think half 
so much of it myself, since it makes way 
with snakes in that cold-blooded style.” 

“ Do you think it less objectionable for 
the animal to eat earthworms ?” asked his 
governess. “ They are its usual food, and 
it devours them in the same way. When 
it is tame, it will eat bread and milk, meat, 
and many other things that human beings 
eat, and it spends its nights chasing after 
insects.” 

14 


210 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

“ Will it really live in a house,” asked 
Clara, “like a cat?” 

“Yes; it will become very tame if taken 
young. In England hedgehogs are not un- 
common pets in country houses, where they 
live on the best terms with the cat and the 
dog, and are quite as useful as Pussy her- 
self in ridding the place of unwelcome in- 
truders. A hedgehog is often kept for this 
purpose. As night approaches it will leave 
its retreat and travel over the floor in all 
directions. It rapidly darts forward on the 
cockroaches and the crickets, and catches 
them with its mouth, never using its paws 
for that purpose. It prefers the garden as 
a residence. A naturalist who had tried 
keeping hedgehogs, principally to clear 
his kitchen of the pests with which it was 
overrun, says, ‘ They all contrived to make 
their escape from the kitchen into the gar- 
den, where they doubtless found food more 
congenial to their taste than cockroaches 
and black beetles. One of my prickly 
favorites committed suicide in a rather 
curious manner. It always preferred to live 
in an outhouse in which were piled a large 


HANDS OFF! 


21 1 


number of bean-sticks, and amono- these 
articles it delighted to hide itself. As we 
kept the animal for the express purpose of 
eating cockroaches, it was necessary to take 
it away from the bean- sticks and restore it 
to the kitchen. On one of these occasions 
we found the poor hedgehog hanging quite 
dead, its neck being firmly fixed in a forked 
stick. We conjectured that it must have 
been clambering among the sticks, and so 
have slipped from some height and been 
caught by the throat in its fall, as its neck 
was so firmly fixed in the fork that it re- 
quired quite a strong pull to get it out.’ ” 

“ What a stupid little animal !” exclaimed 
Malcolm, in great contempt. “ Why didn’t 
he roll himself up in a ball, instead of stick- 
ing his neck out?” But Clara and Edie 
were rather sorry for “ for the poor little 
hedgehog.” 

“ For the same reason, I suppose,” re- 
plied Miss Harson, “ that you often get a 
fall when, if you had known what was likely 
to happen, you could have saved yourself. 
You must remember, too, that your in- 
telligence is supposed to be considerably 


212 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

greater than that of an animal nine or ten 
inches long.” 

“What color are hedgehogs, Miss Har- 
son ?” asked Clara. 

“ On the back and the upper part of the 
head, where the spines are, the color is 
brown tipped with yellowish white, with a 
dark ring rather below the middle of each 
spine. The long, coarse fur which covers 
the sides, throat, chest and stomach is chest- 
nut-brown mixed with gray. They have 
short, round ears, nearly hidden by the 
fur, and the small black eyes are quite 
prominent. The feet are black and with- 
out fur or hair, and the funny little tail, 
— only an inch long — is the same.” 

“ The little baby-hedgehogs must be very 
cunning,” remarked Edith. 

“ Yes, dear,” replied her governess ; “ you 
would call them so, I am sure, for they are 
not more than two inches long and are 
perfectly white. From three to five are 
usually born in one nest.” 

“ And can they too roll themselves up 
into balls?” 

“ Oh no ; at first they are quite as help- 


HANDS OFF! 213 

less as other little babies, and there are 
only soft beginnings of spines until they are 
about a week old. It is a long time before 
they can fold themselves up in a thorny 
mantle, like their parents. The mother 
makes a very neat nest of leaves and is 
devoted to her little ones. One of these 
animals had a nest, containing several 
young hedgehogs, in a garden, and every 
night, after dark, she would go into a 
neighboring grove or thicket to hunt for 
food. One evening the garden door was 
closed earlier than usual ; and when poor 
Mrs. Hedgehog returned from her ramble, 
she found herself locked out from her chil- 
dren. The next morning she was dis- 
covered lying dead close to the door : the 
violent efforts she made to get in, with her 
great anxiety about her babies, had killed 
her.” 

“ And what became of the poor little 
things, Miss Harson ?” asked Clara. 

“They too were afterward found dead 
from want of food.” 

“Well,” said Malcolm, “ hedgehogs seem 
sometimes to have a hard time of it, in spite 


214 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

of their prickles. What do they do with 
themselves in winter?” 

“ That is their safest time,” was the reply, 

“ for then they just sleep in their comfort- 
able nests, where nothing can trouble them. 
Few animals take such unbroken rest as 
does the hedgehog. Even the dormouse 
awakens at intervals during the winter 
months and partakes of its store of nuts or 
grain before falling again into slumber, but 
the hedgehog makes no provision for the 
winter, and when once curled up asleep in 
its snug nest remains there in a state of 
deep slumber until the warm spring weath- 
er rouses it from its sleep. Its nest is ad- 
mirably adapted for such a habit, being 
invariably built in some sheltered situation, 
generally under the naked roots of some 
large tree, in a hole of a rock, under large 
stones, or some such secure place, and ren- 
dered very warm and comfortable by a 
large mass of moss and leaves, among 
which the hedgehog rolls himself, and re- 
mains, secure from cold by the thickness 
of its bed, and from rain both by the sub- 
stances under whose shelter it is placed 


HANDS OFF! 


215 


and by the admirably-constructed roof, 
which is so compact that even were it 
exposed to the fury of the weather the 
rain would be thrown off and the interior 
kept dry. When the hedgehog comes 
out of this winter retreat, he looks like a 
ball of matted leaves, for these entirely 
cover the rolled-up animal and stick fast 
to his spines. They drop off by degrees 
in his runs through bushes and briers, but 
for a while he is even a funnier object than 
usual.” 

All agreed that this was funny enough, 
and they were really sorry to hear the last 
of this amusing little neighbor whom they 
might never see. 


CHAPTER X. 


ABOUT FOXES. 


NE pleasant May morning the little 



party were walking through the 
woods with their hands full of wild colum- 
bines, azaleas, dogwood, and all the lovely 
wild blossoms that they had learned to love 
so well, when Clara suddenly shuddered as 
they were mounting a hill, and said, 

“ It looks so dark all around here ; it 
always reminds me of Little Red Riding- 
Hood and the wolf.” 

This made Edith cling close to Miss 
Harson as she peered anxiously among 
the thick trees. Malcolm was not a cow- 
ardly boy, but even he looked a little 
frightened as he said, 

“There was something moving among 
those bushes, Miss Harson, and I am 
almost sure that I saw a pointed face and 
glittering eyes.” 


216 


ABOUT FOXES. 


21 7 



no dangerous animals within many miles 
of Elmridge, so that there is not the least 
need of being frightened even if a poor lit- 
tle fox should take it into his head to look 
at us from a respectful distance. 


“I dare say you did,” replied his gover- 
ness after gazing in the direction he point- 
ed out, “and I think I can tell you just what 
it was. You surely know that there are 


THE AMERICAN FOX. 


218 little neighbors at elmridge. 

“ A little fox !” exclaimed the chorus. 
“ Why, foxes are big and horrid, and — 
and they bite.” 

“ Do they ?” was the laughing reply. 
“And how many times, may I ask, have 
you been bitten ? Now, I shall listen this 
time and have you tell me all you know 
about foxes.” 

As the “pointed face and glittering eyes” 
which Malcolm so vividly described had 
disappeared, and as Miss Harson did not 
hasten her steps, the children began to 
think that their fears were foolish, and 
laughed out merrily. 

“ I am waiting,” continued the young lady, 
“ to be enlightened, and I suppose Mal- 
colm will take the chair.” 

“Why, there isn’t any,” said Edith, 
blankly. Then she wondered what they 
were all laughing at, and her eyes filled 
with quick tears. 

Miss Harson kissed the rosy, surprised 
face as she said kindly, 

“ Never mind, dear ; you will understand 
it all in time. But things really begin to 
look as though, instead of hearing a lect- 


ABOUT FOXES. 


219 


ure on foxes, I should have to give one 
myself .’ 1 

“I can’t seem to think of anything,” re- 
marked Malcolm, just as though it had really 
been expected of him, “ and I — I don’t be- 
lieve I ever saw a fox before.” 

“ And you evidently did not see him very 
well now,” said his governess, laughing. 
“ I am afraid I shall have to excuse you 
from giving a description of him. It is a 
pity that we did not all see our sly visitor 
to better advantage, for a fox is not a com- 
mon sight, and I suspect that this was a 
poor little hunted animal that was making 
pleasure for a party of ‘gentlemen ’ some 
miles away.” 

“ Can the fox run so fast?” asked Clara. 

“Yes, indeed,” was the reply; “when the 
hounds are after him, he clears miles of 
ground in a very short time, and he twists 
and turns in such a cunning way that were 
it not for his strong scent the dogs would 
lose all track of him. But this scent cannot 
be mistaken, and hunting-dogs are very 
keen in such matters.” 

“What do they want with the fox after 


220 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

they catch it ?” asked Malcolm. “ Is it good 
to eat?” 

“ Not at all. No one ever heard, in this 
part of the world, of a fox being roasted, 
boiled or stewed, but his more dainty broth- 
er of the Arctic region is considered an 
excellent dish. The fur, too, of the Arctic 
fox is valuable, and this evening we must 
see what we can find out about both 
species.” 

The children were looking at a picture 
of a fox just ready to pick the fattest fowl 
from the perch above him. 

“What do you particularly notice about 
the fox ?” asked their governess. 

“ Why,” said Clara, “ he looks like a dog, 
except that his nose goes in a point and he 
has such a great big heavy tail that it drags 
on the ground. I should think it would 
tire him to carry it around.” 

“Yes,” added Malcolm; “he does look 
like a dog. But you thought of it sooner 
than I did, Clara.” 

The boy’s sister gave him a loving smile 
as she replied modestly, 



READY FOR SUPPER 


rvn p 








222 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

“ Perhaps we both thought of it together, 
only I spoke first.” 

“ Listen,” said Miss Harson, with an ap- 
proving smile, “to what our authority says 
about it : ‘ The characteristics of the fox, 
as given by a naturalist in order to distin- 
guish the animal from the dog, consist of 
the lengthened and sharp muzzle joined to 
a round head, erect and triangular ears, the 
pupil of the eye linear, like that of the cat, 
and the long bushy tail ; but if we ask a 
sportsman, he will say that the chief charac- 
teristics of a fox are its brush, countenance, 
and pads, by which he means the tail, head 
and feet, which are retained by the fortu- 
nate huntsmen who are with the hounds at 
the death of the fox, and exhibited as tro- 
phies.’ This is an English writer, but in 
our country hunting the fox, though not 
unknown, is less practiced.” 

“I shouldn’t think it would be very easy 
to catch him,” said Malcolm, “ if he runs so 
fast.” 

“ It is not at all easy, and this makes what 
is called exciting sport. The animal runs 
so fast, and is so cunning at escaping even 


ABOUT FOXES. 


223 


at the last moment, that often, when quite 
sure of their prize, the hunters are disap- 
pointed. A fox has been known to take 
refuge in a house, and in one case the fox 
dropped itself down a chimney, in spite of 
a fire at the bottom, and tumbled into the 
lap of an old woman who was seated in the 
chimney-corner smoking a pipe. The poor 
old woman was terrified out of her wits, and 
retreated into a corner followed by the chil- 
dren. The hounds chased the fox as far as 
the chimney-top, but did not dare to follow 
it any farther. Some of the sportsmen 
entered the cabin and captured the fox, 
much to the relief of the frightened inhab- 
itants. This happened in Ireland, where 
the roofs of the houses are usually so low 
that a dog can easily jump on them, and 
the goats feed on the grass that grows 
there.” 

This was worse than catching a glimpse 
of a fox among the trees, and the children 
thought that for many reasons Elmridge 
was a pleasanter home than an Irish cabin. 

“Another fox, on being hard pressed, 
rushed into a cottage and sprang into a 


224 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

cradle from which a mother had only a 
few minutes before taken her child. The 
stratagem was clever, but it did not suc- 
ceed, for the hounds entered the cottage 
and soon dragged the intruder from his 
lurking-place.” 

“Would he have eaten the baby, Miss 
Harson,” asked Edie, “if its mother hadn’t 
taken it up ?” 

“No, dear, but it was certainly better for 
the baby to be out of the cradle while Mas- 
ter Fox was in it. His favorite food is 
poultry of all kinds ; and whenever he 
gets a chance, he carries off a fat hen or 
goose and gobbles up the small chickens. 
Rabbits, too, he delights in, and rats, mice, 
weasels, frogs and large insects are all 
snapped up in turn. He shows so much 
craftiness in getting at his prey and in es- 
caping from danger when it threatens him 
that it is a common expression to use of a 
sly, scheming person that he is ‘as cunning 
as a fox.’ A favorite trick of the fox is to 
make believe he is dead when he is about 
to be caught, with no chance of escape. 
Once, in a hen-house, when the owner of 


ABOUT FOXES. 


225 


the slaughtered poultry came suddenly 
upon him, one managed to stretch himself 
out just in time and look so very dead that 
the good woman thought he had killed him- 
self with over-eating. Glad to be rid of him 
with so little trouble, she picked him up by 
the tail and threw him out of the hen-house, 
when the fox, finding himself safe, started 
up and scampered off.” 

“ Does the fox make these holes in the 
ground to live in,” asked Clara, “or does 
he find ’em there ?” 

The children were looking at the picture 
again, and admiring the funny little foxes, 
with their pointed faces and “ cute” ears. 

“ The fox is a great burrower,” replied 
their governess, “and digs his house him- 
self. It always has several entrances, 
which the hunters call ‘ earths and when 
a fox disappears in one of these holes, he 
can run along under ground for a long dis- 
tance. Five or six little ones are usually 
found in the innermost chamber, while in 
the outer one, as well as in several of the 
passages leading to it, there are abundant 
stores of food. There are varieties of 


15 


226 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

foxes,” continued Miss Harson, “ inhabit- 
ing many different countries, but the pret- 
tiest, and perhaps the’ most interesting, of 
the whole tribe are the Arctic foxes. These 



THE ARCTIC FOX. 


animals are found in great numbers on the 
shores of Hudson’s Bay, and they have very 
fine, thick fur, which changes color with the 
season. In winter it is snowy white and 
closer than in summer ; and when the fox 
is sleeping, rolled up in a ball, with the 
black muzzle buried in the long hairs of 
the tail and every part of the body pro- 


ABOUT FOXES. 


227 


tected from the cold, the shaggy hairs of 
the brush act as a respirator, or boa, for 
the mouth, and a muff for the paws.” 

“Then he doesn’t have to put his furs 
away and take care of them ?” said Clara. 

“ No, they are always ready ; and a natu- 
ralist who kept a pair of these animals on 
purpose to watch the changes in the color 
of their fur reported that the winter dress 
was laid aside during the first week in June 
for a brown suit ; at the end of September 
this changed gradually to ash-color, and by 
the middle of October it was perfectly white 
again. It grew thicker until the end of 
November.” 

“ I should think they would wear their 
white dresses in summer,” said Malcolm, 
“and keep the dark ones for winter.” 

“ They do just the opposite,” replied his 
governess, “ and it may be that this is ar- 
ranged by a kind Providence for their pro- 
tection. In brown fur, among the snow and 
ice of winter, they would be more easily 
seen by their enemies, and so, when the 
earth is brown and some verdure appears, 
white coats would make them just as con- 


228 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

spicuous. Their beautiful fur brings a very 
high price, and they are trapped by the 
Eskimo for this reason. Unless they were 
protected in some way, the species would 
become extinct.” 

“Do they act like other foxes?” asked 
Clara. 

“ They are quite as active and wide 
awake, but they do not rob poultry-yards 
nor escape from hunters, because they 
have not the opportunity. It is said to be 
almost impossible to come unexpectedly 
upon them ; for when they appear to be 
sound asleep, the slightest noise will 
rouse them. They do their sleeping in 
the daytime, and roam about at night. 
They eat birds and their eggs, berries, 
and also mussels and other shellfish. 
Among their accomplishments, these Arc- 
tic foxes know how to go a-fishing in a 
very ingenious way.” 

“Well,” said Malcolm, “I would like to 
know how they do that.” 

“Their craftiness is quite equal to that 
of the other foxes, which never seem to do 
anything in a straightforward way ; and 


ABOUT FOXES. 


229 


when they go a-fishing, they plash with their 
feet in the water, to excite the curiosity of 
some kinds of fishes to come up and see 
what is going on. Then, of course, the fish 
are snapped up. This kind of fishing is so 
successful that the Greenland women have 
learned it from the foxes. When one of 
these animals wants a dinner of birds, he 
will lie down and pretend to be dead, 
when the birds fly to him to eat him, and 
get devoured themselves.” 

“ Foxes are awful story-tellers,” said 
Edith. 

“ That has been their reputation for thou- 
sands of years, and among the other ani- 
mals they may be said to bear a very bad 
character.” 

“ Can they talk, Miss Harson ?” contin- 
ued the little girl, who would not have 
been surprised if the answer had been 
“ Yes.” 

“No, dear,” said her governess, “ not in 
a way that human beings can understand ; 
but after hearing such remarkable stories 
about them it almost seems as if they ought 
to talk. They do in fables ; and when I 


230 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

was a little girl, an old lady gave me a 
book called FEsop' s Fables which I used to 
delight in. These fables were short stories 
about animals which acted like human be- 
ings, and the fox appeared in a great many 
of them. One called ‘ The Fox and the 
Grapes ’ was a great favorite of mine — 
partly because of the picture.” 

“ Oh, what was it, Miss Harson ?” 

“ First, you must know that foxes are 
very fond of grapes, and the wild grapes 
which grow so plentifully along the edge 
of the wood are usually called ‘ fox-grapes.’ 
Master Reynard will often strip the vines, 
if he can, as soon as the grapes are ripe. 
Well, in the picture he is standing on his 
hind legs, on tip-toe, stretching up as far 
as he can toward some rich clusters of 
grapes that grow high up on a wall — so 
high that he cannot possibly reach them. 
The story is this : ‘A hungry fox one day 
saw some tempting grapes hanging at a 
^ood height from ;the ground. He made 
many attempts to reach them, but all in 
vain. Tired out by his failures, he walked 
off grumbling to himself, “ Nasty sour things 



SOUR GRAPES 


232 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

I know you are, and not at all fit for a gen- 
tleman’s eating !” ’ Now, if any one abuses 
a thing which he wants and cannot get, 
some acquaintance who knows this is very 
apt to say, ‘ Sour grapes !’ because of this 
fox-story.” 

This fable was highly approved of, and 
then the children asked for more, but their 
governess said that they would have the 
book there some day, and then they could 
read the fables for themselves. 

“ I should like,” said Miss Harson, pres- 
ently, “ to have some one tell me where 
foxes are mentioned in the Bible.” 

No one could reply, and the young lady 
continued : 

“They are to be found in several places, 
for foxes abound in the Holy Land. In 
The Ride Through Palestine , Dr. Dulles 
says : ‘A startled fox that has been forag- 
ing in the vale dashes up the hill, and 
when well out of range turns and looks 
upon us with characteristic coolness. Syr- 
ian foxes are not behind their brethren of 
other lands in shrewdness.’ Here is the 
picture of the Syrian fox. In the Song of 


ABOUT FOXES. 


233 


Solomon, second chapter, fifteenth verse, 
are these words: ‘Take us the foxes, the 
little foxes that spoil the vines: for our 
vines .have tender grapes.’ These ‘ little 
foxes’ that spoil the vines are often our 
faults, which, while we are careless and 
unwatchful, prevent us from having good 



THE SYRIAN FOX. 


fruit for the Master ; and if we hope to 
keep them from spoiling the vines, we 
must remember always to ‘ watch and 
pray.’ — Malcolm, I should like to have 
you read the twentieth verse of the eighth 
chapter of Matthew.” 


234 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

‘“And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have 
nests ; but the Son of man hath not where 
to lay his head.’ ” 

“ But he could have had,” said Clara, 
reverently, “ such a beautiful home if he 
had chosen.” 

“Yes, dear, but he chose poverty and 
hardship for our sakes ; and even the fox’s 
burrow and the bird’s nest could be said to 
be comfortable in comparison with the 
homeless state of the world’s Maker and 
Redeemer.” 


CHAPTER XI. 


MORE BURROWERS: RABBITS. 



A S Mal- 
colm 
had two pet 
rabbits that 
were much 
admired in the fam- 
ily, Miss Harson had 
promised the children 
a talk about these 
animals, which were 
named respectively 
“Snow" and “Jet,” 
from their different 
colors. Snow, how- 
ever, had a little black on her ears, and Jet 
a little white on his legs. They were quite 
new pets, for their owner had been unfor- 
tunate with rabbits before, and he was not 
a little proud of these fine specimens. 


236 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

When all was ready, there were the rab- 
bits, too, in Malcolm’s arms, looking rather 
surprised and uneasy, but managing to 
munch some lettuce-leaves, which were 
supposed to keep them quiet. Snow was 
ornamented with a blue ribbon, and Jet 
with a red one. Miss Harson suggested 
that this might be the reason why they 
looked so unhappy. Their master, how- 
ever, remembering that they were on ex- 
hibition, did not intend that they should be 
outdone by the two cats, and he held them 
up proudly, as though it had been the most 
natural thing in the world for rabbits to 
wear neck- ribbons. 

“I suppose,” said his governess, laugh- 
ing, “ that there may be very little to be 
learned about rabbits by a gentleman who 
has the charge of them, yet some study of 
their habits and needs may not come amiss 
even to such an experienced person.” 

“ Now, Miss Harson,” said Malcolm, who 
was thinking of his failures, “ that was ever 
so long ago, when I was a little boy. I 
know better how to take care of ’em now ; 
and, besides, I want to learn all I can.” 


MORE EUR ROWERS. 


237 


“ That is really a manly speech, Malcolm, 
and I shall not laugh at you any more. 
Besides, I remember that when your little 
gray Bunny that you loved so dearly was 
stolen in the night, and you found a tuft of 
its pretty fur caught in the iron railing, you 
sobbed as if your heart would break and 
said that you wouldn’t mind so much if it 
had gone to some one who would be kind 
to it, but you ‘knew they wouldn’t, and 
they’d give it things to eat that would dis- 
agree with it, and they’d brush its fur the 
wrong way, and maybe keep it in a dirty 
place, and — ’ Then you broke down again, 
and papa and I thought it kinder to tell 
you that poor little Bunny was probably 
dead and safe from all this misery. There 
is nothing to look ashamed about, dear; 
that was five years ago, and you were a 
little fellow then, and a very tender-hearted 
one.” 

“ He’s a real nice boy now,” said Edith, 
“and he is always good and kind to an- 
imals.” 

Malcolm laughed as he stooped to kiss 
his little sister’s dimpled cheek, and their 


238 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

governess smiled on both as she opened a 
book before her and turned to a picture 
of wild rabbits with short brown fur and 
upright ears. 

“There is quite a difference, you see,” 
she said, “ between the wild ones and the 
tame ones.” 

“Yes indeed!” replied Malcolm as he 
gazed admiringly at his pets. “ Snow and 
Jet are ever so much prettier than that. 
They have long silky fur, and their pretty 
ears lie well back, and their little bandy 
legs and smutty noses are what the girls 
call ‘just too cunning.’” 

“ Well,” said Clara, with a surprised look, 
“ that’s just what they are.” 

“ The wild ones have a very good time, 
though,” continued Miss Harson. “ Our nat- 
uralist speaks of them as ‘the brown little 
vagabonds that scamper about the mouths 
of their burrows, owning no law but their 
own pleasure, tumbling over head and ears 
in sheer exuberance of delight, nibbling the 
herbage or sitting up on their hind legs to 
obtain a wider prospect, scuttling back to 
their holes on the slightest panic, and now 



WILD RABBITS. 



240 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

popping their impertinent little heads out 
of their burrows and playing with fresh 
energy when satisfied that the coast is 
clear.’ ” 

“Wouldn’t it be delightful to see ever so 
many of ’em at once acting in that funny 
way?” said Clara. “But, Miss Harson, 
what is a ‘ warren,’ please ?” 

“ It is a collection of burrows, dear, where 
these sociable animals live together in large 
numbers. When they find a retired spot 
where the soil is dry and sandy, with plenty 
of food not far off, they set to work at their 
tunnels. They choose dry, sandy ground 
because it is easier to dig and the bushes 
whose young shoots they like best grow 
on it. The mother-rabbit has a tunnel by 
itself, in which she arranges her nursery — 
or, rather, at the end of it, as she does not 
fancy these burrows, through which the 
whole rabbit-colony can come and go as 
they please. She takes great pains with 
her nest, which is thickly lined with the 
soft, fine fur that grows on her own 
breast.” 

“Does she really pull it off?” asked 


MORE BURROWERS. 


241 


Edith, with great round eyes. “And 
doesn’t it hurt her ?” 

“Yes, she has been seen to pull off large 
tufts of it with her teeth ; and if it hurt her 
much — as it would certainly hurt us to pull 
out our hair from our heads in this fashion 
— she probably would not do it. But at 
the season when the rabbit makes her nest 
the fur is very loose and comes off easily, so 
that this instinct, as it is called, does not 
give her any uneasiness.” 

“ What do wild rabbits eat ?” asked Mal- 
colm. “ They can’t get cabbage-leaves, and 
lettuce, and oats, and carrots, and corn, 
and — Lots of things that my rabbits 
eat.” 

“No,” replied his governess, “and they 
are quite contented with grass, and roots, 
and buds, and bark, and berries. Both 
the wild and the tame rabbits, like the 
squirrel, the dormouse, and some other 
small animals, cut their food with the front 
teeth of the upper and lower jaws, for they 
have no; grinders, or molar teeth. They 
eat nothing but vegetable food, and mice 
and insects are in no danger of being at- 
16 


242 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

tacked by them. But if they get into a 
garden they will do a great deal of dam- 
age by nibbling the young plants.” 

“ Miss Harson,” said Clara, “ couldn’t a 
wild rabbit be turned into a tame one?” 

“ This has been done,” was the reply, 
“ when the rabbit was taken very young. 
Here is an interesting account of a natu- 
ralist’s experience with one : 

“ ‘ One evening last spring my dog barked 
at something behind a flower- pot that stood 
in the door-porch. I thought a toad was there, 
but it proved to be a very young wild rab- 
bit. The poor thing was in a state of great 
exhaustion, as if it had been chased and had 
been a long time without food. It was quiet 
in the hand and allowed a little warm milk 
to be put into its mouth. Upon being wrap- 
ped in flannel and placed in a basket by the 
fire it soon went to sleep. When it awoke, 
more milk was offered in a small spoon, 
which this time was sucked with right good 
will. The little creature continued to take 
the milk in this way for several days, until 
strong enough to help itself out of a cup. 
It appeared to become tame immediately, 


MORE BORROWERS. 


243 


soon learnt its name, and I never saw a 
happier or merrier little pet. Its gambols 
on the carpet were full of fun. When tired 
of play, it would feed on the green food and 
nice bits placed there for it; and when 



YOUNG RABBITS AND GUINEA-PIG. 


satisfied, it used to climb up the skirt of the 
dress, nestle in the lap or under the arm and 
go to sleep. If this indulgence could not be 
permitted, then Bunny — as we called it — 
would spring into my work-basket and take 
a nap there. At midday it liked to sit in 
the sun on the window-seat ; then it would 
clean its fur and long ears, each being sepa- 


244 little neighbors at elmridge . 

rately drawn down and held by one foot 
while brushed by the other. This duty 
performed, it would stretch at full length, 
and, basking in the sunbeams, fall asleep. 

“ ‘ Strange to tell, all this was going on 
with the dog in the room, who had been 
made to understand that the rabbit was 
not to be touched ; stranger still, the rab- 
bit ceased to show any fear of the dog, but, 
on the contrary, delighted in jumping on 
his back and running after his tail. These 
liberties, however, were not pleasing to 
Jewel; they were evidently only endured 
in obedience to the commands of his mis- 
tress. Not approving of one favorite being 
made happy at the other’s expense, I was 
obliged to interfere on these occasions and 
call Bunny to order. 

“ ‘ Being frequently told that a wild rab- 
bit could not be so thoroughly domesticated 
but that it would return to the woods if it 
regained its liberty, I feared that if mine 
got loose it would certainly run away; yet 
I wished it should be sometimes in the ear- 
den to feed upon such green food as it liked 
best. For this purpose I fastened it with a 


MORE BURROWERS. 


245 


collar and small chain, and, thus secured, I 
led it about. One evening the chain un- 
fortunately broke, and Bunny was free. At 
first we saw the little creature running - from 
place to place with wild delight, but after a 
while we could not see it, and we hunted 
in vain under the shrubs, calling it by name, 
until it became dark. We then ceased to 
search any longer, and I concluded that my 
pretty pet was gone. Before retiring for 
the night I gave a last look out of the win- 
dow, in the hope that I might chance to see 
it once more. The moon was then shining 
brightly, and I distinctly saw my little rab- 
bit sitting at the door with head and ears 
erect as if listening for its friends within — 
anxious, perhaps, for its accustomed nice 
supper and soft, warm bed. I hastened 
down stairs to let it in, calling it by name, 
when, the moment I opened the door, a 
strange cat darted forward, seized it bv 
the neck and bore it screaming away. 
Every effort of mine to overtake the cat 
was useless. 

“ ‘ I feel convinced that this fond little 
creature would not have left us to return 


246 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

to the wood. That it did not come when 
called was the effect of excessive joy for its 
newly-found freedom, which must have been 
doubly delightful while we were near, as no 
doubt it saw us when we could not see it, 
and was only quietly feeding when we 
thought it was gone away. Four months 
must have been the extent of poor Bunny’s 
short life.’ ” 

“What a shame!” cried Malcolm and 
Clara, while little Edith had burst into 
angry tears at the villany of “ that horrid 
cat.” 

“ Rose and Daisy wouldn’t be so wicked,” 
she said, when told that this was the na- 
ture of cats ; but Miss Harson said that if 
she had a little bunny to which the cats 
were strangers she would not trust them. 

“ Besides,” she continued, “ rabbits them- 
selves do even worse things, for they will 
sometimes kill their own children.” 

“Oh!” groaned the human children; 
“how can they?” 

“ It is hard to believe, I know, but they 
certainly do. The mother-rabbit has been 
known to do it when her children were 


MORE B URR O WERS 


24 7 


handled before she was ready to show 

them. ' The mother of a very young fam- 
ily,’ says the gentleman who wrote about 
Bunny, * was displeased at the curiosity 
evinced by several children respecting her 
little ones, who were very comfortably lying 
in the day-room. She therefore carried 
them off one by one into the bedchamber, 
picking them up with her teeth. One un- 
fortunate little creature was seized by one 
of its ears, and in the struggle between its 
parent and itself the ear was fairly pulled 
off. The mother took the misfortune very 
philosophically: she ate the severed ear, and 

then, seizing her child by the ear that re- 
mained, dragged it into the bedchamber 
with the rest.’ ” 

This was perfectly dreadful, and for such 
meek-looking things as rabbits, too ! 

“ They are not very meek, although they 
do look so,” said Miss Harson, “ but are 
very quarrelsome little animals. They will 
get into a sudden fury, and squeak and 
stamp with their feet in a very threatening 
manner, and woe be to any animal, rabbit 
or other, that comes near them ! They have 


248 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

a very funny way of attacking the object 
of dislike by leaping over its back and giv- 
ing it a violent kick by the way, striking off 
pieces of fur with a single blow. ‘ In a bat- 
tle that took place between a large rabbit 
and a cat the rabbit came off victorious ; 
the cat was completely puzzled, and after a 
few rounds, and after losing no small amount 
of fur, left the rabbit conqueror of the field. 
She would boldly have resisted a dog who 
attacked her in front, but this method of 
jumping over her back and inflicting a 
severe blow during the leap was too 
much for her.’ ” 

The children were very much amused 
with this account, and only wished that the 
cat who ate little Bunny had been served 
so. But to think of rabbits actually fight- 
ing was very strange. 

“Another rabbit,” continued their gover- 
ness, “ seemed to fancy himself a watchdog. 
The house in which he lived had in front a 
shop where greens and vegetables were 
sold, and, being very fond of such things 
himself, he mounted guard over them and 
would run after and bite any intruder.” 


MORE BURROWERS. 249 

“Why, I should as soon expect one of 
the kittens to do that,” exclaimed Mal- 
colm. 

“ It does not seem in the least like a rab- 
bit,” was the reply, “ but our little neigh- 
bors are constantly surprising us in one 
way and another. I wonder how we should 
like stewed rabbit or rabbit pot-pie ?” 

“ Do people eat rabbits ?” asked Clara. 

“Yes, dear; rabbits are eaten, and are 
tender and delicate. The hare, which seems 
only a larger kind of rabbit, is considered 
quite a delicacy, but these two animals, 
which are almost exactly alike except in 
size, are said to hate each other and never 
to meet except for the purpose of fighting. 
These combats are so fierce that one of the 
parties is almost sure to be killed.” 

“ Can hares be tamed, like rabbits ?” 
asked Malcolm. 

“ They are often tamed in England, where 
they are more common than with us. The 
poet Cowper, who was very fond of hares, 
had several that were as tame as cats and 
would answer to their names and come 
when they were called. The hare is a very 


250 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

timid animal — more so than the rabbit — and 
it is always on the watch for danger ; but 
kindness conquers it in the end, and it has 
even been taught a variety of tricks. There 
was once exhibited in London a hare that 
could play on the tambourine, fire off a 



AT HOME. 


pistol, and do other equally remarkable 
things.” 

This was very exciting, but the children 
could never hope to see such a hare as that; 
the next best thing, therefore, would be for 
Miss Harson to tell them a story — one of 
her very own. 

“ I happen to have one,” was the smiling 
reply, “but I have told you several rabbit- 


MORE EUR ROWERS. 


251 


stories already, and perhaps I had better 
keep this for some other time.” 

No, indeed! it would be ever so much 
nicer to have it now, if it was about rabbits ; 
and, besides, Miss Harson hadn’t told them 
one of her own for such a long time. The 
young lady laughed as she declared that 
they were perfect highwaymen where stories 
were concerned, and then she began to tell 
them 


HOW A RABBIT WENT TO CHURCH. 

“ I don’t believe it!” said Bob, stoutly. 

“Why not?” asked Uncle George. 

“ Because, uncle, rabbits never go to 
church.” 

“ But you have seen a dog in church, 
haven’t you ?” 

“Yes, sir, but that’s different. Dogs al- 
ways want to go wherever you do, but a 
rabbit doesn’t ; it is just the shyest thing, 
and always trying to get away. When did 
it happen ?” he asked, with a critical air. 

“Oh, some time last spring, and this was 
the way of it: Just back of the church, in a 
little bit of a house, lived a boy named Billy 


252 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

Gill alone with his mother. Billy was not 
very bright and he had few pleasures, but 
some one gave him a rabbit, and this seem- 
ed to make him very happy. There was 
not much grass around anywhere for the 
rabbit to feed on — for it was in the city, 
you know — but on the side of the church 
that was nearest to Billy’s house the iron 
railing took in a nice little piece of grass- 
plot that was beginning now to look like a 
carpet of green velvet. Mrs. Gill said that 
this was just the place for the rabbit, and 
that if Billy asked them she, believed that 
the gentlemen who had charge of the church 
would let him use it. Billy asked in fear 
and trembling as he saw two or three of 
them standing on the porch of a week-day, 
and a round-faced pleasant gentleman said 
‘ Yes ’ at once. Then he looked at the rab- 
bit, and, as it was nearly black, he told Billy 
that he had better name it ‘ Snowball.’ ” 

“ Didn’t he know that snowballs are 
white?” asked little Ruth, quite troubled 
by the gentleman’s stupidity. 

The other children laughed at her, but 
Uncle George replied kindly, 


MORE BURROWERS. 


253 


“Yes, dear; he knew it very well, and 
said this to the boy only for a joke. But 
Billy looked quite grave over it, not under- 
standing it at all, and then he hugged his 
rabbit very tightly in his arms and ran 
home. Two or three Sunday evenings 
after this it was very warm, and the church 
doors stood wide open. People fanned 
themselves nearly all the time, and Mr. 
Sayres, our minister, was getting quite 
dizzy with so many fans flapping before 
his eyes. Presently the fanning stopped 
all of a sudden, and all seemed to be star- 
ing hard at the pulpit. But they were not 
looking at Mr. Sayres: they were looking 
at the floor below, where something was 
jumping about in a curious sort of fashion 
and making the people smile. Those who 
sat farther back leaned over their neighbors 
to see what was going on, and no one ap- 
peared to think of attending any more to 
the sermon. At last Mr. Sayres looked 
down to find out the reason of this strange 
conduct, and there was Billy Gill’s rabbit 
on its hind legs, making the funniest shad- 
ows you can think of. A little way off sat 


254 little neighbors at elmridge. 

Billy — who was very regular at church — 
with such a red face ! for he believed that 
every one was laughing at him on account 
of his rabbit. If he only dared to get up 
and take Bunny out! No grown person 
had seemed to think of doing this, and Mr. 
Sayres very quietly motioned to Billy, who 
just as quietly took up his rabbit, although 
it almost got away from him ; and the dis- 
turbance was over. The poor little animal 
had been frightened enough, after straying 
into a strange country, and was glad to re- 
turn to his old quarters. 

‘“I think/ said Mr. Sayres, ‘that we may 
all take a lesson from that boy’s good be- 
havior in church and then he went on 
with his sermon as though nothing had 
happened.” 

“Well,” said Bob, when the children had 
stopped laughing over the idea of a rabbit 
in church, “I s’pose he might have got 
there that way. Wish I’d seen him.” 

“I think it is just as well,” replied his 
uncle, “ that you were not there. I do not 
believe you would have behaved so well as 
Billy did. He seemed to remember that 


MORE BORROWERS. 


255 


a church was not the place for laughter, and 
even before he was told to he wished to do 
the most proper thing that he could have 
done. Mr. Sayres is taking a great deal of 
pains with him now, and I think that Billy 
will be quite a man one of these days.” 

Bob colored a little, for he knew that he 
was too fond of fun ; but Uncle George 
looked very kindly at him, and Bob really 
meant to try and do better. 

“Did that really happen, Miss Harson ?” 
asked the children, when the story was 
finished. 

“Something very like it did,” was the 
smiling reply, “ and I have to be provided 
with so many stories that I took care to 
remember it.” 


CHAPTER XII. 


NO BEAUTY: THE TOAD. 

“ T DON’T like toads,” said Edith, draw- 

_L ing herself away as a very small 
specimen of that family hopped across the 
path. 

“ I wonder why girls are always afraid of 
toads ?” said Malcolm, reflectively. “ I don’t 
mind ’em, and they can’t bite you, Edie.” 

“ But they feel so horrid,” replied Clara; 
“ they’re so cold and damp. Ugh !” and 
the pretty mouth was twisted into an ex- 
pression of intense disgust. 

“ It seems to be the fate of toads to be 
hated and shunned,” said Miss Harson — 
“ more so, perhaps, than any other reptile 
except snakes.” 

“ What is a reptile ?” asked Malcolm. 

“The name,” replied his governess, “is 
taken from the Latin word repto , mean- 
ing ‘ I crawl.’ Most of the reptiles crawl, 

256 


IVO BEAUTY. 


25; 


although toads and frogs are more given to 
jumping. The cold, damp feeling of which 
Clara speaks is common to them all, and 
they are known as cold-blooded animals. 
A reptile’s heart is imperfect, and this 



THE COMMON- TOAD. 

makes the breathing — which gives heat to 
the blood — imperfect also ; the body, there- 
fore, which depends upon the blood for 
warmth, is not so highly heated as it is in 
other animals. A toad or a frog or a liz- 
ard, or any of those creatures, when 
17 



258 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE , 

handled, feels chilly, smooth and clammy 
to us, with our warmer blood — a sensation 
so far from pleasant that people say ‘ it 
makes their flesh creep ’ to touch one.” 

“ But it must be worse for the toads and 
such things,” said Malcolm. “Aren’t they 
half frozen ?” 

“No; they are comfortable enough. It 
is only others who object to their temper- 
ature. This is one reason for the universal 
dislike that is felt for them, and the poor 
toad has been particularly avoided because 
in old times it was supposed to be malig- 
nant and poisonous. It was said that if it 
burrowed near the root of a tree every one 
who ate a leaf of that tree would die, and 
that if one only handled it one would be 
struck with sudden cramp. AU sorts of 
strange remedies for this poison were used. 
The foundation for such stories was the 
milky fluid which the toad throws off from 
its skin as a defence against its enemies. 
It has a very unpleasant odor, and is be- 
lieved to poison other animals. Even 
now, among ignorant people, children are 
warned, ‘ Do not go near that toad ; it will 


NO BEAUTY. 


259 


spit at you !’ and they cannot be made to 
believe that the poor little reptile is quite 
harmless.” 

“ Will it not bite or sting ?” asked Edith, 
with some concern. 

“No, dear; it cannot bite, for it has no 
teeth, and it cannot sting, for it has nothing 
with which to sting. The toad has even 
been made a house-pet, and quite an inter- 
esting one ; and about it there are to be 
learned many things which will make you 
wonder that you could ever feel afraid of 
so harmless a creature. In its own place 
it is useful, and it is fitted for its place.” 

“ What funny-looking things toads are !” 
said Clara that evening as they were study- 
ing the pictures which Miss Harson found 
for them in the books on natural history. 
“ Their mouths go all across their heads, 
and their legs and paws are so queer.” 

“ And their eyes stick out so,” said Edith, 
“and they’re all up in a hunch.” 

“ You wouldn’t call ’em ‘ pretty,’ then ?” 
said Malcolm. 

“An old English naturalist,” said Miss 


260 little neighbors at elmridge. 

Harson, “ described the toad as the most 
deformed and hideous of all animals — the 
body broad, the back flat and covered with 
a pimply, dusky hide ; the belly large, swag- 
ging and swelling out ; the legs short and 
its pace labored and crawling ; its retreat 
gloomy and filthy. This is not a very flat- 
tering picture, but it is true in many re- 
spects, and especially in the thick skin full of 
lumps and warts. The hind legs are scarce- 
ly longer than the body, and the toes are 
webbed for half their length, showing that 
the toad is an amphibious reptile — one that 
can live both in water and on land. It 
seems, however, to have a preference for 
the land.” 

“Does it have any nest?” asked Clara; 
and Malcolm laughed at the idea of a toad’s 
nest. 

“You have never happened to hear of 
one,” said his governess, “ but can you 
really tell us anything about a toad’s nur- 
sery ?” 

After thinking for a moment or two Mal- 
colm guessed it was a hole in the ground. 

“ No ; it is a hole in the water — or, rather, 


NO BEAUTY. 


26l 

the young toads are born in that element, 
where they first appear as tadpoles, like the 
frogs, pass through the like stages, and in 
the autumn, having attained their legs and 
lost their tails, they venture upon the land 
as miniature frogs and commence their ter- 
restrial life. In this state they crawl about 
in search of their prey, and meet with many 
dangers.” 

“What do they eat, Miss Harson ?” asked 
Malcolm. 

“ Insects of various kinds, and especially 
flies ; but they seem ready to devour any 
live thing that is small enough. A gentle- 
man who kept some of these strange pets 
wrote to a friend : ‘ My toads are sufficiently 
tame to sit quietly on the hand while carried 
to the window, and there snap up the flies 
which they are held within reach of ; and in 
this way I often cleared my sitting-room of 
those troublesome insects during last sum- 
mer. It has been observed that toads refuse 
to seize anything that is not in motion, and 
it may be added that they will attack any- 
thing that is, provided it is not too large to 
be swallowed. The form or color of an 


262 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

object seems of no importance if only it 
moves; any small object in motion is re- 
garded as suitable prey. If the end of a 
pencil, or anything similar, is drawn along 
the side of the vase which the toads inhabit, 
they are likely to strike at it, and, not learn- 
ing wisdom by failure, they will go at it again 
and aofain. One or two small tortoises 
shared the same vase with some toads ; and 
if one of these put out its head, the move- 
ment was sure to attract the attention of the 
nearest toad, who would place himself in a 
convenient position, intently watching his 
shelly companion until the latter moved 
again, when dab! would go the toad’s 
tongue upon its head, which the tortoise 
would quickly draw back into the shell, 
not appearing to relish the unceremonious 
salute. This absurd scene, which was of 
frequent occurrence, was plainly owing to 
the toad’s mistaking the head of the tor- 
toise for some insect small enough to be 
swallowed.’ ” 

The children were very much amused 
with this toad-performance, and the little 
reptile had become so interesting that they 


NO BEAUTY. 


263 


were quite afraid of Miss Harson’s stop- 
ping because there was no more to say. 

“Didn’t somebody else have some pet' 
toads, Miss Harson ?” asked Edith, in such 
a funny way that every one laughed. She 
was evidently afraid that there would be 
no more stories. 

“Yes, dear; a great many people have 
tamed toads at different times and watched 
their curious ways. A naturalist who caught 
a young toad and took it to town with him 
found that it had a habit of disappearing for 
a time and then returning to its old quar- 
ters. * The toad,’ he says, ‘ would occasion- 
ally absent himself for weeks, so that I 
ceased to be alarmed for his welfare even 
though I might not have caught sight of him 
for a month. In this manner we went on, 
leaving Toady to take his holidays as he 
pleased, until the spring of last year. Dur- 
ing one of his vacations I was watching the' 
movements of some small insects, and it ap- 
peared that my pet was watching them also, 
for on their approaching within reach of his 
tongue that organ was instantly thrust for- 
ward, and the insect disappeared. Thus, 


264 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

while losing sight of a new acquaintance, 1 
became aware of the presence of an old 
friend. 

‘“I also derived fresh satisfaction in ob- 
serving his choice of food and mode of tak- 
ing it, and, supplying him with the same kind 
of food, he soon lost all appearance of shy- 
ness, and would come out of his hiding- 
place regularly, day by day, until late in 
November, when he again disappeared as 
the frost set in. Again I was agreeably 
surprised, one beautiful spring day in the 
early part of April, to observe my old friend 
moving about, as if to inform us that he had 
returned again from his unknown place of 
retreat. He had grown fatter and uglier 
than he was in the autumn ; his skin was 
blacker and coarser, and dark spots cover- 
ed the whole body. He came direct to the 
same spot on which I had fed him when last 
we met, more than four months ago. He 
was supplied with what we term “garden- 
hogs ” — woodlice, worms and the lively lit- 
tle black ant. None of these would he 
touch if dead or if they did not show un- 
mistakable signs of active life. Then would 


NO BEAUTY. 


265 


he fix his calculating eye until the object 
came within reach of his tongue ; this he 
would dart at them, and- in an instant the 
object was gone. When satisfied, he would 
return to some quiet nook out of sight. 

“ ‘ This summer, being long and dry, I 
have had some difficulty in providing him 
with his necessary food. One day I placed 
him in a large hole at the bottom of the gar- 
den where I collected the sweepings and 
rubbish, and he literally became a “ toad-in 
a-hole.” This was some fifty yards from 
the house, and I left him to shift for him- 
self amongst the insect life of the rubbish. 
I afterward sought to convey him back to 
his old neighborhood around the house, 
but he was nowhere to be found, and this 
time I gave him up for lost. Four days 
afterward what was my surprise, whilst seat- 
ed at supper, to see Toady come tumbling 
heels overhead down the step into the 
room on a visit to his old friends ! The 
most remarkable feature in this last freak 
is the circuitous route he must have taken 
before he arrived, and the obstacles he 
must have encountered in the way.’ ” 


266 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“What a nice little toad!” exclaimed Clara, 
who had been quite as decided as Edie in 
not liking toads. “ But I should think these 
live insects would bite him when he got 
them into his mouth.” 

“ These queer little reptiles,” replied Miss 
Harson, “ even manage to devour bees with- 
out getting stung, and they will make a meal 
of them when they can get no other insects. 
A gentleman had a hive of bees in a hole in 
a wall, and a toad that resided in a neigh- 
boring hole was seen to walk out and take 
up his station at the mouth of the hive to 
catch the bees as they went out and came 
in. It was wonderful to see how quickly 
and unexpectedly an astonished honey- 
gatherer would find itself on the way down 
his throat, but after watching Mr. Toad’s 
performances for some time the owner of 
the bees began to think that if he wished 
to have any of these valuable insects left 
he had better kill the robber. When this 
was done, and after an examination was 
made, his stomach was found to be as 
full as it could hold of dead bees.” 

“He was a regular pirate,” said Malcolm, 


NO BEAUTY. 267 

“who did not confine his piracies to the 
water.” 

“Don’t toads do more funny things?” 
asked Clara. 

“They probably do a great many that 
we shall never hear of,” replied her gov- 
erness, smiling ; “ but, like all reptiles, the 
toad has one queer habit which he gener- 
ally indulges in his own private room. 
This is casting off his skin for a new one, 
and the manner in which he disposes of his 
old clothes is something quite out of the 
common way. Occasionally he undresses 
himself in public, and he sets about it by 
pressing his elbows hard against his sides 
and rubbing downward ; after a few hard 
rubs his skin begins to burst open straight 
along the back. He keeps on rubbing 
until he has worked all the skin into folds 
on his sides and hips ; then he grasps one 
hind leg with both hands and strips off the 
skin as if it were a garment, afterward 
treating the other in the same way. Next, 
our half-undressed reptile takes this cast- 
off skin forward, between his fore legs, into 
his mouth, and swallows it ; then, by raising 


268 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELAIRIDGE. 

and lowering his head and swallowing as 
his head comes down, he strips off the skin 
underneath, until it comes to his fore legs ; 
then, grasping one of these with the other 
hand, by considerable pulling he gets off 
the skin. Changing hands, he now strips 
the other, and by a slight motion of the 
head, and all the while swallowing, he 
draws the skin from the neck and finishes 
his toilet. It does not take long for him 
to get rid of the old skin and to appear in 
a fresh new suit, and he seems rather to 
enjoy it.” 

Malcolm thought this very funny, but 
Clara said that she would never call a 
toad “ nice ” again ; and her little sister 
was equally disgusted. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


FROGS. 


“HTHE toad,” said 

X Miss Harson, 

“has a cousin, larger 
than himself, whom 
you all know, but 
whose home is more 
entirely in or near the 
water; for he is the 
thirstiest of creatures 
and drinks not only 
with his mouth, but 
with every pore of his 
body.” 

“ It must be a frog,” 
said Malcolm, “ for he 
looks like a toad and stays by the water; 
but I didn’t know about his being so 
thirsty.” 

“ Yes ; it is said that if a wrinkled and 

269 



THE FROG. 


?.yo LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

emaciated frog is placed in confinement and 
plentifully supplied with water, it will absorb 
it like a sponge and plump up in a wonder- 
fully short time. It gets dry equally quick; 
and if in dry weather a dead frog is laid in 
the open air, it shrinks up and becomes as 
hard as horn. When the skin is moist, it 
helps the lungs in breathing. ‘ In order to 
secure that object, the frog is furnished 
with an internal tank, so to speak, which 
receives the superabundance of the absorb- 
ed water and keeps it pure until it is re- 
quired for use.’ ” 

“ One day,” said Clara, “ when there was 
a heavy shower, Thomas said it had rained 
frogs, and he showed us lots of ’em in a 
muddy place. Do they come down in the 
rain, Miss Harson ?” 

“ Certainly not, dear ; such a thing is 
quite impossible, yet there are people who 
really believe it. In hot, dry weather the 
frogs, which are dried up by the heat of 
the sun, retreat to the coolest and dampest 
places they can find ; these places are under 
clods and stones, and here, owing to their 
dusky color, they are not seen. When the 


FROGS. 


27 1 


rain comes, the frogs appear, and in such 
quantities, where there was no sign of them 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE FROG. 


before, that ignorant people declare they 
must have rained down. But if they had 
known where to look for them, they would 
have found them before there were any 
signs of a shower.” 


2 72 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

“Are little frogs pretty?” asked Edith. 

“ This is what they look like,” replied her 
governess, showing her the preceding pict- 
ure illustrating the development of a frog. 
“ Here you have the whole biography of a 
frog. What do you think of it ? 

The children exclaimed in amazement at 
the strange shapes which the creature had 
at the early stages. 

“Why, it cannot jump at first,” said 
Edith. 

“ No,” replied Miss Harson. “ This is 
the appearance of the tadpole for a little 
time after it is hatched from the egg, and it 
grows larger from day to day without seem- 
ing to change in shape. After a while lit- 
tle lumps, or buds, will be seen toward the 
back and front of the body ; these are the 
beginnings of legs. As the legs develop 
more and more the tail gradually disap- 
pears, and the tadpole becomes a young 
frog. There are large families of the tad- 
poles, and they do not seem to agree very 
well together, for they kill and eat one an- 
other as their limbs begin to bud.” 

Clara and Edith called them “ horrid lit- 


FROGS. 


273 


tie wretches,” but Malcolm asked if this 
were any worse than for their parents to 
eat them, as “cunning little rabbits ” did 
with their children. 

“ All these cannibal habits seem very 
dreadful,” continued Miss Harson, “but so 
many of these creatures are born that if 
part of them were not disposed of in this 
way we should be very uncomfortable from 
their excess. ‘ Were all the young tadpoles 
to become frogs, not only would mankind 
be cursed with a plague of Egypt, but the 
frogs themselves would suffer ; for there 
could not possibly be food for all, and 
starvation would be the consequence. 
Thus, by inquiry into the ways of an all- 
wise and munificent Creator, we may gen- 
erally find that what at first sight seems 
cruel is in reality merciful and kind.’ ” 

“Aren’t the tadpoles called ‘ polly wogs ’ ?” 
asked Malcolm. 

“Yes, that is one of their names, and 
country-boys never call them anything else. 
From the beginning the frog is a curious 
animal, and its great goggle-eyes — which 
stick out from each side of its head — its 


18 


274 little nelghbors at elmridge. 

immense mouth and its uneven legs give 
it an appearance that is anything but at- 
tractive. It has a slippery, slimy feeling, 
too, worse than that of the toad, and its 



THE FROG AT HOME. 


hoarse grunt, or croak, is not a pleasant 
sound. A concert of frogs on the edge of 
a pond is often heard through the summer 
night, and it seems as if each separate frog 
were trying to make all the noise he possi- 
bly could. ‘ When the frog sings, it gener- 


FROGS. 


275 


ally sinks itself under water, with the ex- 
ception of its head, opens its mouth, lays 
its lower jaw flat on the water, and sets to 
work as if it meant to make the best of its 
time.’ The French frogs are still more 
noisy, and in old times, when great people 
were staying in the country, the poor peas- 
ants had to spend their nights ‘flogging’ 
the water with long poles to keep these 
croaking animals quiet. The singing of 
South American frogs is, perhaps, more 
agreeable. A naturalist in Rio de Janeiro 
said, ‘After the hot days it was delicious 
to sit quietly in the garden and watch the 
evening pass into night. Nature in these 
climes chooses her vocalists from more 
humble performers than in Europe. A 
small frog of the genus Hyla sits on a 
blade of grass, about an inch above the 
surface of the water, and sends forth a 
pleasing chirp ; when several are together, 
they sing in harmony in different notes.’ ” 

“Miss Harson,” asked Clara, “aren’t 
there frogs that live on the trunks of trees 
and make a noise like singing?” 

“Yes,” replied her governess; “there 


276 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

are tree-frogs as well as water-frogs, but 
they are oftener heard than seen. A writer 
describes one as looking like a large cocoon 
on the bark of a tree. ‘ Placing my hand 
upon it,’ he says, ‘ it moved quickly, and I 
was astonished to find a yellow-breeched 
tree-frog in my grasp. His back was ex- 
actly the color of the bark, mottliness and 
all, and it was only by chance I had caught 
sight of him. He was finely disguised and 
protected against his enemies by his invis- 
ible dress.’ German tree-frogs are green, 
and they are called leaf-frogs, because their 
color is so much like that of the leaves on 
which they live. One will sometimes be 
heard singing in a small bush, but it is very 
difficult to find him ; at the slightest rustle 
he stops his song, and will not begin again 
until everything is quiet. A naturalist who 
had with much trouble collected a dozen 
of these frogs had quite a funny time with 
them. He says ; 

“ ‘ I started at night on my homeward 
journey by the diligence,* and I put the 
bottle containing the frogs into the pocket 

* Stage-coach. 


FROGS. 


2 77 


inside the diligence. My fellow-passengers 
were sleepy old smoke-dried Germans ; 
very little conversation took place, and 
after the first mile every one settled him- 
self to sleep, and soon all were snoring. 

“ ‘ I suddenly awoke with a start, and 
found all the sleepers had been roused at 
the same moment. On their sleepy faces 
were depicted fear and anger. What had 
woke us all up so suddenly ? The morn- 
ing was just breaking, and my frogs, though 
in the dark pocket of the coach, had found 
it out, and with one accord all twelve of 
them had begun their morning song. As 
if at a given signal, the whole party of 
them began to croak as loud as ever they 
could. The noise their united concert 
made seemed, in the closed compartment 
of the coach, quite deafening, and well 
might the Germans look angry. They 
wanted to throw the frogs, bottle and all, 
out of the window, but I gave the bottle a 
good shaking and made the frogs keep 
quiet. The Germans all went to sleep 
again, but I was obliged to remain awake 
to shake the frogs when they began to 


278 LITTI.K NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

croak. It was lucky that I did so, for they 
tried to begin their concert again two or 
three times. 

“ ‘ These frogs came safely to Oxford, 
and the day after their arrival a stupid 
housemaid took off the top of the bottle 
to see what was inside ; one of the frogs 
croaked at that instant, and so frightened 
her that she dared not put the cover on 
again. They all got loose in the garden, 
where I believe the ducks ate them, for I 
never heard nor saw them again.’ ” 

The children laughed over these adven- 
tures, though it seemed too bad for the 
poor naturalist to lose his frogs after hav- 
ing so much trouble with them. 

“These same green tree-frogs,” contin- 
ued Miss Harson, “ are used in Germany 
as barometers. For this purpose they are 
placed in tall bottles with little wooden lad- 
ders. In fine weather the frogs always 
mount up toward the top, and go lower 
down at the approach of rain, while the 
steps of the ladder mark the degrees. 
The Germans are sure to consult their 
frogs before they start on a picnic.” 


FROGS. 


279 


At this the young people opened their 
eyes ; they had no idea that there were so 
many strange things to be learned about 
frogs. 

“And what becomes of them in winter?” 
asked Clara. 

“ Some hide themselves in holes in the 
ground, while large companies of them are 
buried in the mud. With the first signs of 
spring they are awake again. The colonies 
separate ; little tadpoles appear in the water 
and in and about ditches and swamps, bog 
and fen, treacherous to human feet. 

“ * By night or by day, were you thereabout, 

You might see them creep in or see them creep out.’ 

And now, Clara,” said her governess, “ I 
would like you to read about the plague 
of frogs in the eighth chapter of Exodus.” 

Clara read the first fourteen verses ; and 
when she came to the last words, “And 
they gathered them together upon heaps, 
and the land stank,” Miss Harson called 
their attention to the fact that frogs, like 
other families of animals, would multiply so 
as to become plagues to men not only, but 


280 little neighbors at elmridge. 

to other living creatures also, were they not 
kept in check by various enemies and dan- 
gers. The balance of creation is preserved 
by one class of creatures serving as food 
for another. 



COOLING OFF. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


A QUEER LITTLE NEIGHBOR: THE NEWT. 

HE little party of explorers were one 



1 day gathered on the edge of a pond 
watching for curiosities and admiring the 
ferns and other green things on the slop- 
ing bank, and the lily-pads farther out in 
the water. 

“ Now,” said Clara, when they were com- 
fortably settled, “ I wonder who’ll see some- 
thing first?” 

“ Hi !” cried Malcolm, suddenly, as though 
calling to some one to stop. “Just look at 
that fellow, Miss Harson ! There he goes 
now, into his hole. How he did whisk 
himself in !” 

It was a water-rat that disappeared in a 
hole just above the water, and the children 
were very much interested in seeing any of 
the creatures about which they had been 
hearing. 


231 


282 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE . 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Edith, getting very close 
indeed to her governess, “ there’s a fish with 
legs crawling right down there by the water ! 
And he has such a big tail too, just like 
a squirrel.” 

“Well, he is a queer customer!” said 
Malcolm. “ He’s got four legs, or paws, 
sure enough, and a spotted body, and a 
great flat tail as long as himself, and — 
But just see him run, Miss Harson ! He’s 
going into the water.” 

In he went with a splash, and presently 
the watchers saw him swimming about as 
though he preferred this to walking on dry 
land. But he had shown that he knew how 
to do both. 

“That is a newt, or eft,” said Miss Har- 
son — “a pretty, harmless little creature of 
which there are several varieties. That one 
looked about four inches long, and belongs 
to the kind most commonly found and known 
as the smooth newt. If there had been time 
to examine it, we would have seen that the 
upper part was a light, brownish gray, while 
underneath it was bright orange-color, with 
round black spots of different sizes all over. 


A QUEER LITTLE NEIGHBOR. 283 

It was also trimmed with a sort of crest 
down the back, from its head to the end 
of its tail ; and this is seen only on the 
gentlemen of the family, the ladies never 
wearing ruffles or bright colors.” 



THK NEWT, OR WATER-SALAMANDER. 


The children declared that Mr. Newt 
must be as vain as a peacock, and that he 
ought to be satisfied to let his wife do the 
fine dressing. 

“You forget,” was the reply, “ that his 
dressing is done for him, and his gay coat 


284 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

grows on him as soon as he is done being 
a tadpole.” 

“Is he a tadpole too?” asked Clara. “I 
thought only frogs were tadpoles.” 

“Yes; the young newt begins life as a 
tadpole, and then he looks exactly like the 
frog’s cousin, although so different after- 
ward. He is grown up, though, in a very 
short time, and usually comes out in full 
dress during the first summer or autumn 
of his existence. But here is something 
curious,” added the young lady, “ that I 
wish you to examine.” 

Bending over the edge of the water, Miss 
Harson pulled a leaf from one of the nu- 
merous plants and showed the children how 
it was folded and glued together. On tak- 
ing it apart a single egg was found thus 
carefully rolled up. 

“ A great many other leaves near by are 
in the same condition,” continued Miss 
Harson, “and this is the work of Mrs. 
Newt, who is very particular that each of 
her infants shall have a separate room in 
which to come to life. After this, however, 
she troubles herself but little about them, 


A QUEER LITTLE NEIGHBOR. 285 

and the tadpoles are often eaten by the 
larger species of newts and by other water- 
animals. The mother will protect her eggs 
at the risk of her own life, and a naturalist 
says that he saw one female have a fight 
with a gudgeon, which invariably returned 
to the same clump of weeds, as if looking 
for something ; probably the newt laid her 
eggs in this clump of weeds, and the fish 
wanted to eat them. The gudgeon seemed 
afraid of the newt, and always made off 
when she came near ; she charged him 
vigorously two or three times, and seemed 
to bite him.” 

“Will they bite people?” asked Edith. 

“No, dear; they will try to do so when 
handled, but their teeth are so small that 
they can only pinch the finger. Yet all 
sorts of absurd stories used to be told 
about them, as about toads, and that, be- 
sides having a fancy for getting down 
people’s throat when they were drinking 
from a brook or a stream, they were very 
poisonous. Men and boys would kill them 
whenever they could be caught, and this 
prejudice, with the fondness of other water- 


286 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

creatures for their tadpoles, gave the poor 
newts small chance of life. They live on 
worms and other insects, but, according to 
different naturalists who have kept them in 
glass tanks, they are not polite to each 
other at their meals. Two of them, it 
seems, lived in a glass globe, and always 
quarreled at dinner-time. When a worm 
was put in for them, the gentleman did not 
wait for the lady, but seized one end of the 
worm, while she seized the other, each 
gulping down as much as possible, until 
their noses met exactly in the middle. 
Each seemed to say, */ will not give up,’ 
and then they began waltzing, twisting, 
twirling and rolling over each other round 
and round their globe. Neither would 
drop the worm, and, as somebody must 
give way, the poor crawler did : the worm 
came apart in the middle, and that ended 
the dispute.” 

The children laughed at this funny pict- 
ure of the two quarrelsome newts, but 
Edith was disposed to pity the poor worm, 
when her brother told her, with a wise air, 
that worms were made to be eaten. 


A QUEER LITTLE NEIGHBOR. 287 

“ Here is another account,” said their 
governess, “which you may like to hear: 
‘ One day I quietly let a worm fall exactly 
between the two large newts that were 
resting at the bottom of my vivarium ; they 
both turned at it at the same moment, and 
both made a bite. The worm gave a wrig- 
gle just then, and both newts, missing him, 
caught hold of each other by the fore legs, 
Newt A having the right leg of Newt B in 
his mouth, and Newt B the leg of Newt A 
in the same position. They soon found out 
their mistake, and began writhing and tum- 
bling about over and over, round and round 
the vivarium, as tightly fixed to each other 
as a couple of bull-dogs, knocking off the 
shells from the sides and frightening the 
poor water-beetle out of his wits and caus- 
ing him to ply his oars vigorously. Both 
of the combatants at last seemed tired, and, 
opening their mouths, set free the cap- 
tured legs ; they then retired to opposite 
ends of the tank thoroughly exhausted.’ ” 
To the amused and highly-interested 
young listeners this seemed even more ri- 
diculous than the other performance, and 


288 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

Malcolm decided that “ newts must be very 
silly creatures.” 

“ Naturalists call them extremely stupid,” 
was the reply, “ for they will run into the 
same danger over and over again, and are 
very easily caught.” 

“ What do they want with such long 
tails?” asked Clara as she looked at the 
illustrations in one of the books they had 
brought with them. “ Except the end, 
they’re almost as long and wide as their 
whole bodies.” 

“ The tail is two-fifths of the newt’s entire 
length, and the little reptile finds it a val- 
uable help in swimming. The legs are then 
turned backward ; but ‘ when floating quite 
still on the surface of the water, which the 
newt frequently does, the feet are stretched 
out at right angles to the body and the toes 
spread as widely as possible, and at the 
bottom of the pond they creep by means 
of their little weak feet, which also serve 
for their getting about on land.’ ” 

“ Miss Harson,” asked Edith, “ do the 
newts make holes in the ground to live in 
in winter?” 


A QUEER LITTLE NEIGHBOR. 289 

“ No, dear, they do not make holes in the 
ground, but they always find what they con- 
sider a snug, comfortable place in which to 
spend the winter. To suit them this must 
be damp, and often it is under stones, bricks 
or pieces of timber, where they may be 
found in companies, closely packed to- 
gether : 

“ ‘ Rolled up like a ball, 

In a hole snug and small 

They sleep till warm weather comes back, poor things !’ 

We must certainly make collections this 
summer for a large aquarium,” continued 
Miss Harson, “and have some newts, which 
are very pretty and interesting animals. W e 
can then watch their funny ways, and espe- 
cially their peculiar style of eating, which the 
naturalists always mention. One of them 
says : ‘ Little red worms seem to be their 
favorite food, and the newt eats them in a 
rather peculiar style. I have had numbers 
of newts of all sizes and in all stages of 
their growth, and always found them eat 
the worm in the same way. As the worm 
sank through the water the newt would 
swim to it and by a sudden snap seize it 
19 


29O LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

in the middle. For nearly a minute it 
would remain with the worm in its mouth, 
one end sticking out from each side of its 
jaws. Another snap would then be given, 
and after an interval a third, which gener- 
ally disposed of the worm.’ ” 

The children were very enthusiastic about 
the aquarium, which was to be on a larger 
scale than the one they got up after their 
summer at the seashore ; and it seemed to 
them perfectly delightful to see how all 
the queer little animals which they hoped 
to have in it really lived when they were 
at home. 

“Another thing that you will like to see,” 
said their governess, “ is the change of skin 
which all reptiles undergo. The same gentle- 
man who wrote about the eating of the worm 
says that every newt he took cast its skin 
within a few hours from the time it was 
placed in the glass jar. The general sur- 
face of the skin came off in flakes, but that 
from the paws vras drawn off like gloves, 
retaining on its surface all the markings 
and creases which it had exhibited when in 
its proper place. ‘ How the drawing off 


A QUEER LITTLE NEIGHBOR. 29 1 

of the tiny gloves was effected,’ he adds, ‘ I 
could not see, though I watched carefully. 
They looked beautiful as they floated in the 
water, being delicate as gossamer, white and 
almost transparent. They might have been 
made for Queen Mab herself, and were so 
delicate that I never could preserve any of 
them so as to give a proper idea of their 
form.’ ” 

The little gloves caused the greatest ex- 
citement, and for some time Miss Harson’s 
small audience could talk of nothing but the 
chance of their finding a pair floating on the 
water. 

“It would be a pretty sight,” replied the 
young lady, “ but a rather tantalizing one, 
too, when we know that they cannot be 
kept. However, if our newts in the aqua- 
rium behave as they ought, we shall at least 
have a glimpse of them, provided they do 
not eat them up first.” 

“Oh dear!” sighed Clara; “do they eat 
their skins too?” 

Miss Harson was sorry to say that they 
did. 


CHAPTER XV. 


IN THE FAMILY: THE LIZARD. 

H, Miss Harson !” screamed Edith, 



who had gone a little way from the 
party to see if she could find something 
wonderful “all to herself.” “Please come 
quick! Here’s a great big newt or a lit- 
tle crocodile.” 

The last words were brought out in a 
rather shaky voice, and without waiting for 
any one to join her the little girl made some 
rapid bounds toward what Malcolm called 
“ the encampment.” 

“ My dear child,” replied her governess, 
taking the outstretched hand, “ there are no 
crocodiles in this country, and I have no 
doubt that you saw only a harmless little 
lizard.” 

“ But it was big,” persisted Edith — “ ever 
so much bigger than the newt — and it had 
such a long, thin tail !” 


292 


IN THE FAMILY. 


293 


“Well, let us see if we can find it, and 
then it will be yours, you know, for you saw 
it first.” 


The young explorer did not look anxious 
to claim her discovery, but, as all went in a 
body toward the long flat rock where the 



OCELLATED LIZARD. 


creature had been stretched out in the sun- 
shine, her fears subsided. 

When they reached the spot, there was 
a surprise in store for them : three small 
creatures were playing around their moth- 
er, and looking so exactly like her that it 
was quite absurd to see them. 

“Why, they weren’t here before!” said 
Edith, in surprise. 



294 little neighbors at elmridge. 

“ I suppose,” replied Miss Harson, smil- 
ing, “ that when the old lizard first caught 
sight of you she said to her little ones, 

‘ Run quick, children ! Under that stone, 
every one of you, this instant! Here 
comes a great creature who could swallow 
you up in a mouthful, but I will stay and 
see what she’s going to do. I’m too quick 
for her to catch me.’ When she saw the 
‘great creature’ running away, she felt 
quite easy and called them out again. See 
how she is looking at us now with those 
bright round eyes turning from side to 
side.” 

The animal did seem to examine them 
quite thoroughly, but, as they did not go 
too close, she appeared to decide that they 
were harmless giants, and stayed' there 
basking in the sun as though she felt very 
much at home. 

“ This is the newt’s first cousin,” said the 
governess, “ for the newt is really a water- 
lizard, while this one lives on land. ‘ It is 
an agile and pretty little creature,’ says our 
English naturalist, ‘ darting around among 
the grass and heather, and twisting about 


IN THE FAMILY. 


295 


with such quickness that its capture is not 
always easy. Sunny banks and sunny days 
are its delight, and any one who wishes to 
see this elegant little reptile need only visit 
such a locality, and then he will run little 
risk of disappointment.’ ” 

“ There !” said Malcolm ; “ it must have 
heard about its darting and twisting, for 
that is just what it is doing. There it goes, 
and all the little ones are with it.” As he 
spoke there was not a lizard to be seen ; 
they seemed to have vanished into the air. 
Miss Harson replied, 

“We were fortunate to see such a fine 
specimen long enough to know that its 
back was a sandy-brown color spotted with 
black, and the under part a creamy white. 
This was Mrs. Lizard, and Papa Lizard 
looks very much like her, except that his 
sides are greenish instead of brown. Tail 
and all, our new acquaintance was about 
seven inches long, and the tail — which, as 
you saw, was very tapering — measured 
more than half this length. Had we tried 
to catch it by the tail, it would probably 
have snapped off as if it had been of glass, 


296 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

and we should have found ourselves with a 
tail, but no lizard.’' 

“Isn’t that dreadful?” exclaimed Clara. 
“Can the lizard move when its tail is broken 
off?” 

“ Yes ; it manages to get off very rapidly 
without it, and after a while another tail 
grows in place of the one that was lost. 
This phenomenon, as it is called, has been 
watched when the animal was confined in 
a glass tank. The new tail first appeared 
in the shape of a small black button, some- 
thing like the bud of a plant or a tree. 
As it increased in size the remaining part 
of the old tail gradually dropped off, and 
the lizard did not seem in the least to 
mind this state of things.” 

The children were lost in wonder at 
such a funny animal, and their governess 
asked, 

“ Did any of you notice a difference, be- 
sides in the tails and the sizes, between this 
lizard and the newt we were looking at 
the other day?” 

“Yes, Miss Harson,” replied Malcolm: 
“the lizard looked hard, while the newts 


IN THE FAMILY. 297 

are soft, and their skin seemed to be in 
different little pieces laid over each other.” 

“ Those were the scales, which mark the 
lizard as belonging to the same family as 
the alligators and the crocodiles — that of 
the saurians. But it is a very different 
animal, as it is quite harmless ; and I wish 
that our restless friend had stayed long 
enough and near enough for us to see her 
beautiful bright eyes. Many other reptiles 
have this beauty, and even the ugly, de- 
spised toad, but in the lizard it is quite 
remarkable. The movements of this little 
animal are as graceful as they are rapid. 

‘ It comes out of its hiding-place during the 
warm parts of the day, from early spring 
till autumn has far advanced, basking in 
the sun and turning its head with a sudden 
motion the instant that an insect comes 
within its view, and, darting like lightning 
upon its prey, it seizes it with its little sharp 
teeth and speedily swallows it.’ There are 
a great many kinds of lizards, and there is a 
great deal to be learned about them ; but, as 
we cannot see the real animals — for they 
belong to other countries and to other parts 


298 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

of our own country — we shall have to con- 
sult our books and pictures at home for any 
further knowledge of them.” 


“ Here is a beauty, Miss Harson,” said 
Clara, holding up a fine colored plate, when 



GREEN LIZARD. 


they were seated on the piazza. “ ‘ The 
Green Lizard,’ it says underneath. Will 
you not please tell us something about it ?” 

“With pleasure, dear, for it is a most 
delightful little animal, and, as people say, 
‘as good as it is pretty.’ It is found in our 
own country, too, in the Southern States, 


IN THE FAMILY. 


299 


as well as in Europe. It is a large lizard, 
as the picture shows — double the length of 
• our brown one — and it is sometimes green 
with yellow spots, while the under part is 
yellow. These hues often change and are 
mixed with scarlet and flame-color. Its 
favorite locality is a slightly elevated woody 
place where the sun’s rays readily pene- 
trate ; it is also found in sunny meadows. 
It feeds upon small insects, and shows no 
alarm at the presence of man, but stops to 
look at him. Snakes, on the contrary, lizards 
seem to fear much ; but when they cannot 
avoid them, they fight courageously. This 
beautiful green lizard is said to be easily 
tamed, and to make a very interesting pet. 
It can be taught to come to the hand for 
its food, and to drink from the hollow of 
the palm of any one to whom it is accus- 
tomed. It will lie coiled up between the 
two hands, enjoying the warmth and not 
offering to escape.” 

“Oh,” exclaimed Edith, in an ecstasy of 
admiration, “can’t we have one in our 
aquarium, Miss Harson ? I want it to 
eat out of my hands.” She appeared al- 


300 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

ready to have quite forgotten her fear of 
the “little crocodile.” 

“We will see, dear,” was the reply, “if 
papa approves ; for I think we should all 
enjoy watching such an active and pretty 
creature. Perhaps you would like, as a sort 
of story, to hear about a pair of green liz- 
ards that a lady kept in a cage ?” 

Yes, indeed, they would like it very much. 
But could lizards be kept in cages ? 

“ It seems that these were, and that they 
did very well. One — the female lizard — was 
there alone all winter, and, although she 
seemed lively and well, she would neither 
eat nor drink ; but when spring came, she 
devoured all the flies that were given her, 
and lapped up water from the bottom of 
the cage with her tongue. She would not 
drink it from a small jar in the cage even 
when she was very thirsty. 

“A larger one was sent from South Caro- 
lina, and then the couple were put into a 
large box in which were twigs and a stick 
of wood. When the new-comer had had 
his dinner, the two animals seemed to 
notice each other for the first time, and 


IN THE FAMILY. 


301 


then began some very amusing antics. 
*■ First one would raise itself to the full 
extent of its front legs, and bow its head 
and the fore part of its body in a regular 
and dignified manner ; it worked as though 
there was a hinge-joint at the shoulders. 
Then the other would repeat the gesture. 
I have seen them bowing several times, 
but they scamper off on finding them- 
selves watched, and even in the midst of 
their ceremonious courtship, if a fly comes 
near, they dart after it like a flash of green 
light.’ 

“ These lizards were constantly changing 
color, and would shift from one hue to an- 
other in from two to eight minutes, while 
one of them changed from green to light 
brown, then back to green again, in five 
minutes. There seemed to be no reason 
for this, and the change would often take 
place when they were asleep. 

“They had several ways of sleeping. 
Sometimes they would lie close up under 
a piece of loose bark, if it was a cool night 
or they had been left out of doors later than 
usual ; at other times they would curl up in 


302 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

a corner behind a small jar, or they would 
stretch out straight and stiff along a limb 
or among the twigs. ‘And their sleeping- 
habits/ continues their mistress, ‘ are the 
most interesting of any I have noticed. 
When they are in a crevice or hole, they 
take any shape that is convenient; but 
when on sticks and twigs, they arrange 
themselves to imitate the general form 
of the branches. In the cage there are 
some irregular twigs and a small horizon- 
tal stick. When on the horizontal piece, 
the lizard stretches itself out straight, with 
its fore legs pressed closely to its body 
and its hind legs and tail so straight along 
the branch that the bend of the knee shows 
as a dimple. When sleeping among the 
twigs, it is arranged, head downward, on 
the largest, with its fore legs close to the 
body, but the hind legs spread out at dif- 
ferent angles. Often one leg will be 
straight and the other bent ; at other times 
both have the same bend, but always re- 
sembling the branching of twigs. They 
so closely imitate this when they are dark 
brown that often at first, before I learned 


IN THE FAMILY. 


303 


their tricks, I would search for them all 
over their cage, fearing they had escaped.’ 
After describing their way of catching flies 
and of shedding their skins, about which we 
already know, the lady finishes her account 
by saying, ‘ My specimens occasionally get 
in the corners and dig at the wires, trying 
to scratch their way out, but generally they 
seem contented, enjoy basking in the sun- 
shine and watch me closely with their quick, 
brilliant eyes, as though they knew I fur- 
nished them with food.’ ” 

The height of Malcolm’s ambition now 
was to possess a green lizard, and, as his 
governess laughingly said, the house would 
be a regular menagerie if all his desires 
were gratified, and animals, birds and rep- 
tiles would be encountered at every turn. 

“ It would not be much worse, though,” 
she added, “than some of the houses in 
tropical regions. In the island of Jamaica, 
where these same green lizards are particu- 
larly beautiful, the traveler is rather sur- 
prised to find these little reptiles so very 
much at home. They chase each other in 
and out between the blinds, now stopping 


304 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

to swell out from the throat a broad, flat 
appendage of crimson or orange, like 
the petal of a flower, then drawing it in 
again and putting it out, as though enjoy- 
ing the sport. ‘ Then one leaps a yard or 
two through the air and alights on the back 
of his playfellow, and both struggle and 
twist about in unimaginable contortions. 
Another is running up and down on the 
plastered wall, catching the ants as they 
roam in black lines over its whitened sur- 
face, and another leaps from the top of 
some piece of furniture upon the back of 
the visitor’s chair and scampers nimbly 
along the collar of his coat. It jumps on 
the table ; can it be the same ? An in- 
stant ago it was of the most beautiful gold- 
en green, except the base of the tail, which 
was of a soft, light purple hue; now, as if 
changed by an enchanter’s wand, it is of a 
dull, sooty brown all over, and becomes mo- 
mentarily darker and darker or mottled with 
dark and pale patches of a most unpleasing 
aspect. Presently, however, the mental 
emotion, whatever it was — anger, or fear, 
or dislike — has passed away, and the love- 


IN THE FAMILY. 


305 


ly green hue sparkles in the glancing sun- 
light as before.’ ” 

Although the changeable lizards were 
such a pretty sight, no one seemed to wish 
to go to Jamaica to see them. Malcolm 
said he would not much mind, but his sis- 
ters thought it would be “ dreadful ” to have 
these creatures jumping on them, and the 
black ants crawling on the walls. 

“ There are so many other kinds of liz- 
ards,” continued Miss Harson, “ that it will 
be impossible to describe them all ; but we 
will glance at some fabulous lizards which 
people used to believe in. One of these 
was the chameleon, which was said to 
change to every color but white, and to 
take all sorts of shapes. There really is 
a species of lizards by this name, but they 
do not do quite such remarkable things. 
The changes of color are even greater than 
in the green lizard, and they are sometimes 
almost white, at other times yellowish, green, 
reddish, and even black, either in portions 
or all over their bodies. The skin is loose 
in some places, and the animal can swell or 
lower it as it pleases. This probably gave 
20 



30 6 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

rise to the story of changing its shape. Its 
natural shape is such a very queer one — as 
you can see in this illustration — that the 
creature could not be blamed for changing 
it if it had the power. The chameleon’s 


CHAMELEON. 

eyes are very peculiar ; besides being large 
and protruding, they can be turned in such 
a manner that one eye looks back and the 
other forward, and with one eye the creat- 
ure can see objects above it, while with the 
other it can see those below.” 


IN THE FAMILY. 


30 7 


This truth sounded very much like a 
fable, and it seemed no wonder that all 
sorts of stories had been told about so 
strange a creature. Of course the chil- 
dren wished to know if people ever keep 
chameleons in the way in which other liz- 
ards are kept. 

“Yes,” was the reply, “although they are 
not so common. They are said to be very 
passionate creatures, and it is supposed that 
this is the reason for their frequent change 
of color. An English gentleman says, ‘ I 
trained two large chameleons to fight. I 
could at any time, by knocking their tails 
against each other, ensure a combat, dur- 
ing which their change of color was most 
conspicuous. This change is effected only 
by paroxysms of rage, when the dark-green 
gall of the animal is sent into the blood and 
can be seen under its pellucid skin.’ ” 

Little Edith didn’t think it was nice to 
make them fight, and her governess quite 
agreed with her; but naturalists, she said, 
often do things which we do not think 
“nice” in order to obtain the information 
which they cannot get in any other way. 


308 little neighbors at elm ridge. 

“Are there any chameleons in the United 
States ?” asked Malcolm. 

“Yes,” replied Miss Harson, “and I have 
an account given of the little fellow by Mr. 
D. C. Beard that is so well told that I will 
read to you what he says. Here it is : 

“ ‘ Perhaps the first creature that attracts 
the eye of the Northern naturalist upon 
landing in Florida is a small, slender lizard 
which appears omnipresent, to be seen run- 
ning up and down the walls of the old fort 
at St. Augustine, peering in at the windows 
of the hotel at Palatka, scampering over 
the logs of the swamp at Tocoi, or scramb- 
ling along the garden-fences at Jackson- 
ville. It may also be seen exhibited for 
sale along with young alligators, wildcats, 
black bears and many other queer objects 
to be found in the jewelry-stores at Jack- 
sonville. 

“ ‘ The specimen from which my illustra- 
tion is made I captured at Tocoi. When 
first taken, he was of a sooty black ; five 
minutes afterward, when I opened the 
handkerchief in which I was carrying him 
to show my prize to a friend, I was amazed 


IN THE FAMILY. 


3°9 



THE AMERICAN CHAMELEON. 


to find, in the place of the dark, dingy little 
creature I had wrapped up, a beautiful em- 




310 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

erald-green lizard. It was only then that I 
discovered my specimen to be the so-called 
American chameleon. 

“ ‘ Two of these anoli that I kept in cap- 
tivity proved very gentle pets, and would 
run over my hands, waiting for me to catch 
flies for them. Although quick in their 
movements, and able by the help of their 
tail to spring quite a distance, these little 
animals never could capture the fly for 
themselves unless I first crippled the in- 
sect by removing a wing. They loved the 
sunshine and fresh air; the latter they 
would swallow in great gulps, expanding 
a sort of pouch under their neck by the 
process. 

“ ‘ Though gentle when treated with kind- 
ness, when tormented they would show 
fight, opening their mouths in a ludicrous 
way. One, after trying in vain to bite a 
lead-pencil with which I had been striking 
his back and otherwise plaguing him, delib- 
erately shook off his tail and scampered 
away, leaving three-fifths of his length 
wriggling upon the floor, where it con- 
tinued to twist for some time. A drop or 


IN THE FAMILY. 


311 


two of blood moistened the stump where 
the tail had been, but, though the loss of 
the latter appeared to cause no physical 
pain, the little cripple seemed ashamed of 
his odd appearance, and hid himself in cor- 
ners. He remained in my room for a month 
longer, but I seldom caught sight of him. 

“ * It is the color-changes of this little 
saurian that attract and interest all ob- 
servers. The negroes, and even intelli- 
gent white inhabitants, of the district tell 
many fabulous stories of its wonderful 
powers in this respect. Experiments with 
specimens which were in my possession 
at different times seemed to demonstrate 
that emerald-green, gray- and sooty- black 
and reddish-yellow were the limits of its 
power. When frightened or pleased, it 
turned green ; if agitated for some time 
in apparent indecision, the color would 
fade, and return in blotches. Under an 
ordinary magnifying-glass it could be seen 
that the hollow around the eye changed 
first. Then the hexagonal plates upon the 
head showed the color. The coloring-mat- 
ter appears to be contained in a network of 


312 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

vessels beneath the skin, and to be some- 
what, though not altogether, under control 
of the animal. One placed upon a bright 
crimson cloth assumed a reddish-yellow 
color, and, though it did not approach the 
brightness of the cloth, a casual observer 
would hardly have noticed the lizard mo- 
tionless upon it. Green is its favorite 
color, and black I never saw but in one 
instance. When hiding in the Spanish 
moss or upon a tree-trunk it assimilates 
the gray, while the yellowish- red it as- 
sumes with apparent effort. When put 
and left upon a red substance or in a 
cigar-box, it approaches very nearly the 
color of the latter. 

“ ‘ From tip of nose to tip of tail it meas- 
ures from five to six inches, the tail being 
three-fifths of its total length. The head is 
rather large, and triangular in shape. The 
animal has no apparent external ears ; it 
has bright, intelligent, almond-shaped eyes, 
large mouth, and four well-developed legs, 
five toes upon each, each toe swelling out 
into a soft pad, terminating in a hooked 
claw. 


IN THE FAMILY. 


313 


“ ‘ In the illustration I have shown tne liz- 
ard upon my finger with mouth open, the 
dark color representing its favorite green 
hue.’ 

“ Another fabulous lizard,” said Miss 
Harson, “was the salamander. The 
Greeks believed that it could live in fire, 
and even now many people think that fire 
will not harm it. In the Middle Ages every 
one declared that the most violent flames 
could be put out by throwing a salaman- 
der into them. Sorcerers and witches 
would use these wonderful animals to con- 
jure with, and they were represented in 
pictures as resting comfortably on live 
coals. Physicians and philosophers final- 
ly proved the absurdity of thTs idea, and 
intelligent people no longer believe it. 
The real salamander is a species of newt, 
and there are both land and water varieties. 
They are very harmless little creatures, and 
their food and habits are very much the 
same as those of the other newts. The 
basilisk was a very terrible creature, and 
ancient writers declared that its sting pro- 
duced instant death, while its dreadful eyes 


3 14 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

would set on fire any person who gazed 
on them. A reptile of the same name is 
now found in South America. Although 
the hooded basilisk — which has a queer 
sort of horn or bag on its head, and a 
ruffle down its back and tail — is a rather 
frightful-looking object, it neither stings 
nor sets people on fire, but is quite as 
harmless as the salamander. There is 
another innocent class of lizards very com- 
mon in all warm countries. It is called the 
‘ gecko,’ and is a very amusing member of 
families in warm countries. His feet are so 
constructed that he can run up and down 
the walls with as much ease as a fly, and, 
as his great business in life is to eat all 
kinds of insects, he is esteemed a friend. 
In the picture you see one about to enter 
into combat with a scorpion, and, though 
the scorpion raises his deadly sting, Mas- 
ter Gecko will be likely to come off victor- 
ious. He will skillfully avoid the sting and 
manage to disable the scorpion and make 
a meal off his body.” 

The children were very much interested 
in listening to the account of these queer 



DUEL BETWEEN LIZARD AND SCORPION 


3 16 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

animals, but presently their governess, 
turning to Edith, said, 

“ Do you remember your ‘ little crocodile,’ 
dear ? Well, it was really a member of the 
same family — that of the saurians — although 
of very different nature. The real crocodile 
is the terror or scourge of tropical seas and 
rivers. It is so large and powerful that it is 



HEAD OF CROCODILE. 


said to exceed all animals except the ele- 
phant, the hippopotamus and some ser- 
pents in its powers of destruction. Its 
huge mouth opens to the ears, and, as it 
has no lips, the terrible teeth are always 
to be seen. This gives to the crocodile an 
aspect at once terrible and alarming, which 
aspect is increased by two wicked-looking 
eyes placed obliquely and close together, 
surmounted by a kind of eyebrow. The 


THE CROCODILE. 





3 18 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

tail of these animals is very long, as thick 
as the body at the junction, and in shape it 
is flat, like an oar ; this enables them to 
steer through the water like a fish, and to 
swim with rapidity. They have four short 
legs, of which the hinder ones have toes 
connected by a membrane, like those of 
all swimming animals. The crocodile’s 
skin is a perfect coat of mail, which is 
proof against almost everything, and down 
the back there is a hard crest which makes 
it all the stronger. Its color is a dull brown, 
with a shade of green along the back, head 
and sides; the under part is a yellowish 
gray. It lays its eggs in the sand and 
leaves them to be hatched by the heat of 
the sun. The crocodiles of the Nile are 
famous, and so are those of India ; in the 
latter country they have devoured many 
little children thrown to them by their 
heathen parents. Their usual food is fish, 
small animals, water-birds and reptiles, but 
they will make a meal on a human being 
when they have the chance. 

“ Miss Harson,” asked Malcolm, “ are 
alligators the same as crocodiles?” 



merly were very numerous n the rivers 
of our Southern States, but they are be 
ing driven from them as the population ad- 
vances ; still, there remain large numbers in 
our most Southern States. I he largest of 


IN THE FAMILY. 319 

“They are alike in many respects, yet they 
differ,” was the reply. “ Alligators are incor- 
rectly called American crocodiles. There 
are several varieties ot the alligator in 
North and South America. They for- 


THE ALLIGATOR OF THE UNITED STATES. 


320 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

the family is called the caiman. Animals of 
this species are numerous in Mexico, Cen- 
tral America and along the river Orinoco, 
where the natives show a great deal of 
ingenuity in catching them. They are 
very fond of dog-flesh, and sometimes a 
dog with a hook tied to his back is taken 
in a canoe and dropped into the water, 
where the poor animal does not swim far 
before he is snapped up, and the hook as 
well. Besides the comfort of destroying a 
deadly enemy, the Indians sell the alliga- 
tor s skin, which is in great demand for 
the manufacture of many useful and valu- 
able articles. So, you see,” added the 
young lady, “ that, beginning with a small 
lizard, we have finished with a large alli- 
gator, and now must say ‘ Good-bye for 
the present’ to our friends the Saurians.” 


CHAPTER XVI. 


WITHOUT ANY FEET: THE BLIND WORM AND 
SNAKES. 



O, dear,” Miss Harson was saying to 


1. \1 Clara — who had shrieked out in 
terror, as they were walking near a brook, 
“ Here’s a snake !” — “ it is not a snake, but a 
harmless blindworm, and has not the least 
intention of injuring you. It would be a 
very little snake if it were a snake, as it 
is not more than a foot long and quite 
slender, but it is really a lizard, and not a 
snake at all.” 

“Why, Miss Harson,” exclaimed Mal- 
colm as he looked curiously at the object 
before them, which did not seem to care 
about moving, “ don’t you think it looks 
more like a snake?” 

“ It certainly does, at first sight, as it does 
not appear to have any legs ; but natural- 
ists tell us that the rudiments, or begin- 

21 321 



322 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

nings, of these limbs are concealed beneath 
the skin. For various other reasons, too, 
the blindworm is classed among the sau- 
rians and has been pronounced a lizard 
without visible legs.” 

“ Can’t the poor thing see at all ?” asked 


BLINDWORM. 

Edith as she gazed at it from a respectful 
distance. 

« Those who have examined it think that 
it sees very well. A naturalist says, ‘We 
call it a “ blindworm,” possibly, from the 
supposition that, as it makes little effort to 


WITHOUT ANY FEET. 323 

escape, it sees badly ; but its eyes, though 
rather small, are clear and lively, with no 
apparent defect of vision.’ It is also called 
slow-worm because of its quiet ways, and it 
is known to be very gentle and inoffensive. 
It seldom tries to bite, even when badly 
teased, and its tiny teeth scarcely leave a 
mark when it does. It is so timid that on 
being laid hold of or pursued it contracts 
itself so forcibly as to become perfectly 
stiff, and it is then so fragile as to be easily 
broken in two, either by a blow or by an 
attempt to bend it.” 

Just then the blind worm crawled off un- 
der a stone and disappeared, as though not 
relishing the idea of a blow or a bend. He 
was visible long enough for the group to 
see that he was a sort of brown gray on 
the upper part, with a silvery shine, or 
gleam, and there were rows of darker 
spots along the sides and one down the 
middle of the back. Underneath, it was 
blue-black with white network. The scales 
of this reptile are very small, and are smooth 
and shining, They are arranged with beau- 
tiful regularity. The blindworm is found in 


324 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

woods and in dry, sandy and stony wastes. 
It is a timid, harmless little creature, retir- 
ing into holes and concealing itself in moss 
at the foot of trees to hide itself from obser- 
vation. It feeds upon worms and insects. 

“ Are there any snakes around here, Miss 
Harson ?” asked Clara. 

“ I think it very likely,” was the reply, 
“ for few woods are without them, but I do 
not believe there are any poisonous ones. 
I see a little garter-snake now. How pretty 
he is, with his green and yellow stripes !” 

Miss Harson spoke as though she were 
saying, “I see a flower,” and, half wonder- 
ing that they were not frightened, the chil- 
dren looked in the direction she pointed 
out. There, sure enough, was a small 
snake with his head raised and his forked 
tongue thrust out, while a low hiss seemed 
to proclaim that he wished no one to come 
any nearer. 

Malcolm seized a small stone, but his 
governess stayed his hand just as he was 
in the act of throwing it. 

C> 

“Surely,” she said, “you would not dash 
out the life which God has given to a perfect- 


WITHOUT ANY FEET 325 

ly harmless creature ? His forked tongue 
and his little hiss have prejudiced you 
against him, but, snake as he is, this little 
reptile is one of our most useful neighbors, 
for he helps to keep under many trouble- 
some insects that without him and his cous- 
ins would multiply too fast.” 

“ I don’t like him,” said Edith, getting 
close to Miss Harson. “ Can’t we go 
home now?” 

“ I do not think he likes us,” was the 
laughing reply, “ for he is gliding away 
among those low bushes as though he did 
not care for a closer acquaintance with us. 
How surprised he would be to find that 
any one was afraid of him ! When you 
have learned something more about this 
class of reptiles, you will see that many of 
them, although not pleasant to look at, are 
perfectly harmless. But we will go home, 
Edie, for it is quite time, and will finish 
our snake-study there.” 

“ Do people ever like snakes, Miss Har- 
son ?” asked Clara. “ I mean, can snakes 
be tamed and made pets of?” 


326 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“ Oh yes,” was the reply ; “ that is not 
at all uncommon with the harmless snakes. 
There is an old story of a little girl in the 
country who used to eat her bread and 
milk out on the stone step and feed a 
poisonous snake at the same time, giving 
him a spoonful and then taking one herself. 
Snakes are very fond of milk ; and when 
this strange companion tried to get more 
than his share, the little girl would tap him 
on the head with her spoon and scold him 
for being greedy. The family, who knew 
nothing of this strange arrangement, heard 
her talking to some one after it had gone 
on for some time, and went out to see who 
it was. They were very much startled to 
see the child close to a venomous snake, 
but it had not injured her at all, and she 
was very unhappy when snatched away 
from her new friend.” 

This was quite an astonishing experience, 
in the opinion of the children, and Malcolm 
said, 

“I don’t mind snakes so very much, but 
I shouldn’t want to share my breakfast 
with one.” 


WITH OUT A A Y FEE T. 3 2 7 

“ The common snake may be easily tamed 
and made to distinguish those who caress 
and feed it. ‘ Many years since I had one,’ 
says a writer, ‘ which knew me from all 
other persons, and when let out of his 
box would immediately come to me and 
crawl under the sleeve of my coat, where 
he was fond of lying perfectly still and en- 
joying the warmth. He was accustomed 
to come to my hand for a draught of milk 
every morning at breakfast, which he al- 
ways did of his own accord ; but he would 
fly from strangers and hiss if they meddled 
with him.’ ” 

A snake under the sleeve of one’s coat 
did not sound exactly pleasant, but it 
seemed to prove that snakes do not al- 
ways bite, and that it is not necessary to 
run on seeing one. 

“ These poor reptiles,” said Miss Harson, 
“are cruelly treated because of the prej- 
udice against them, and it seems to be 
thought a praiseworthy act to kill a snake 
whenever it is seen, even if the creature 
be as harmless as an earthworm. There 
are some tender hearts, though, that can- 


328 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

not injure anything, but feel for the lowest 
and the meanest of creatures ; and I read 
lately of a poor boy who led a dreary and 
suffering life carefully digging up some 
earthworms, washing them thoroughly in 
a basin, and then hanging them on a line 
to dry. He was much troubled because 
they wriggled off and fell to the ground 
again ; and when asked why he had dis- 
turbed them, he said that he felt so sorry 
for them, and wanted them to be clean and 
dry for once in their lives.” 

The idea of earthworms hanging up to 
dry was so very funny that the little Kyles 
seemed likely to forget about the snakes ; 
but Malcolm presently asked, 

“What do snakes eat, Miss Harson, 
when they can’t get milk?” 

“Our little striped neighbor,” was the 
reply, “like most of his tribe, enjoy?, 
birds’ eggs and young birds, also frogs 
and mice. I believe, too, that he does 
not despise earthworms and other in- 
sects ; but, whatever he takes, he swallows 
it whole.” 

“ How can such a little snake swallow a 


WITHOUT ANY FEET. 329 

frog?” said Clara. “His mouth isn’t big 
enough.” 

“A snake’s mouth and jaws are very 
peculiarly formed, and can be stretched so 
wide apart that the reptile is able to swal- 
low an animal several times its own thick- 
ness. A naturalist speaks of seeing ‘ a 
snake stretched along the bottom of a 
ditch, which at this time was dry ; he held 
in his mouth both hind feet of a frog, 
which was also stretched forward at full 
length, resisting with its fore legs the at- 
tempts of the snake to draw it back, and 
croaking dismally. The strife continued 
for some time, when I made a sudden 
movement, and the snake, loosing its hold 
of the frog, glided up the opposite bank. 
The frog slowly gathered itself together, 
sat still for some little time, and then 
hopped away.’ ” 

“That was good,” said Edith. “I’m 
glad it got off.” 

“A small frog that was swallowed alive,” 
added her governess, “ has been known to 
jump out of its prison again when the 
snake opened his mouth to yawn, as he 


330 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

generally does after a meal ; and that frog 
probably skipped off a very happy little 
reptile.” 

“ Do snakes lay eggs ?” asked Malcolm. 

“Yes; they lay eggs without any shell, 
but they are covered with a strong mem- 
brane to protect them. They are some- 
times found in manure-heaps in long 
strings of from sixteen to twenty eggs, 
for the mamma-snake does not hatch them 
herself, and she is wise enough to look for 
a warm place in which to leave them.” 

“ I suppose the snakes go into holes in 
winter?” said Malcolm. 

“ Some of them do ; others retire to a 
hollow tree or a heap of wood, and remain 
there in a torpid state until some sunny 
day in spring. Then they come out for an 
airing, bask a while in the sun, and return 
to their cells until warm weather has come 
to stay. Between spring and winter,” con- 
tinued Miss Harson, “ one of these reptiles 
will have worn out two or three suits of 
clothes. ‘ The entire empty skin of the 
snake may often be found among bushes 
where the creature has gone in order to 


WITHOUT ANY FEET. 


331 


assist itself in casting off its old skin. 
Snakes as well as other animals wear out 
their coats and are obliged to change them 
for others. When the change is about to 
take place and a new coat has formed un- 
der the old, like new skin under a blister, 
the creature betakes itself to some spot 
where are thick grass, reeds or similar sub- 
stances. A rent then opens in the neck, 
and the snake, by wriggling about among 
the stems, literally crawls out of its skin, 
which it leaves behind, turned inside out. 
Even the covering of the eyes is cast 
away, and, in consequence, the snake is 
partially blind for a day or two before the 
moult, if we may call it so.” 

A snake’s skin was at once added to the 
curious things to be searched for that sum- 
mer at Elmridge, and the little Kyles saw 
a new meaning in it when their governess 
said, 

“ If we find one, let it always remind us 
of the beautiful truth which a Hottentot 
Christian preached to his black brethren 
on the immortality of the soul. ‘When we 
find the skin,’ said he, ‘ we do not call it the 


332 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

serpent — no ; for we know that is alive and 
has only cast off its skin. The serpent is 
the soul ; the skin is the body.’ ” 

“ Miss Harson,” asked Clara, “ did you 
ever see a rattlesnake ? and does it really 
rattle ?” 

“Yes, dear; I have seen one that was 
killed by some gentlemen who were climb- 
ing a mountain, and a most unpleasant- 
looking object it was, with its thick, vividly- 
marked body and arrow-shaped head. The 
broad, flattened head and narrow neck al- 
ways mark the venomous snakes, so that 
they can be easily distinguished in this way. 
* They have, besides, a ferocious aspect, as 
though conscious of their powers, which 
proclaims their malevolent nature. When 
irritated or alarmed, these poisonous rep- 
tiles assume an attitude of defiance; while 
the harmless snake generally seeks safety 
in flight.’ The rattlesnake is found all over 
the United States, and is considered an 
especially American reptile. It certainly 
‘ rattles,’ but the noise is not so loud as 
is generally supposed, being more like a 
rapid humming, and it is made with a 


WITHOUT ANY FEET. 


333 


number of hollow, flattened and somewhat 
rounded segments at the end of the tail, 
ending in a rounder one, called the ‘but- 
ton.’ These are loosely hinged together, 
and the least movement of the tail will set 
them rattling. A full-grown snake usual- 
ly has from ten to fourteen rattles; and 
when he is angry or frightened, he always 
makes this warning sound. Here is a pict- 
ure of our American rattlesnake, which cer- 
tainly does not look attractive.” 

It did not, and yet the reptile was hand- 
some in a horrible way. 

“The rattlesnake,” continued Miss Har- 
son, “is considered more honorable than 
his deadly brothers the copperhead, the 
moccasin and the massanga, because he 
gives some warning of his presence, while 
they, although members of the same family, 
are without rattles. The copperhead espe- 
cially is famous for its cowardly ‘ stabs in 
the dark.’ Gray, with black and blue- 
black markings, is the usual color of the 
Northern rattlesnake, but the other spe- 
cies, found in the Southern States, are varied 
chestnut, copper-color and yellow. Whole 


334 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

dens of rattlesnakes are sometimes found, 
and as many as a thousand have been killed 
in some places. They increase very fast, 
and the young snakes grow rapidly. The 
poison-fangs of the rattlesnake and other 
venomous serpents fold back against the 
roof of the mouth when they are not in use, 
for they are quite distinct from the teeth, 
and the wound they inflict is not made by 
biting, but by striking. When about to 
strike, the snake coils its body, leaving the 
tail thrust out to vibrate, and holds its head 
erect, until by a violent contraction of the 
muscles around the neck it darts it forward 
for the fatal stroke. The fangs are then 
raised, and the poison flows from a narrow 
slit in the side of each one.” 

“ Oh dear!” exclaimed Clara, with a shud- 
der; “I don’t want to walk up any of our 
mountains where these dreadful rattle- 
snakes are.” 

“ I do not think you would care to walk 
in India or Africa, either,” replied her gov- 
erness, “for the snakes common to those 
countries are quite as venomous and not 
so easy to avoid.” 


THE RATTLESNAKE 








336 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

“ They have boa- constrictors there, don’t 
they?” asked Malcolm. 

“Yes, but they are not poisonous; they 
kill their victims by crushing them to death 
in their huge folds. The python is an- 
other immense serpent of this species. It 
lives principally in trees ; there are other 
snakes which glide from bush to bush, 
others that live on the ground and under 
the ground, and others, again, that live only 
in the water. Those which are found in 
lakes and in rivers are generally harmless, 
but the sea-snakes are among the most 
deadly kinds.” 

“Miss Harson,” asked Edith, “what is 
the very worst kind of snake there is ?” 

“ It is hard to tell, dear, when there are 
so many dangerous ones,” was the reply, 
“ but the East Indian cobra, which is also 
found in Egypt and Arabia, has probably 
as bad a reputation as any. A man will 
die from its bite — which looks like the 
prick of a pin — in two hours. The snake- 
charmers in India profess to tame this and 
other poisonous serpents with their music 
and their incantations, but even they some- 



WITHOUT ANY FEET. 33 7 

times meet with fatal accidents. If one of 
these venomous creatures is made to bite 
itself, it will die of its own poison.” 


COBRA. 

“Fortunately,” added their governess, 
“they are not our ‘neighbors,’ and at 
present we will turn from them to pleas- 
22 


33B LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

anter subjects. But first let us see where 
serpents are mentioned in the Bible.” 

“ In the very beginning - ,” said Malcolm, 
promptly, “ in the garden of Eden, where 
the serpent tempted Eve.” 

“ It is in the third chapter of Genesis. 
And we all know that sad story of our 
first parents’ fall. The serpent’s punish- 
ment is written in the fourteenth verse : 
‘And the Lord God said unto the ser- 
pent, Because thou hast done this thou 
art cursed above all cattle, and above 
every beast of the field: upon thy belly 
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all 
the days of thy life.’ ” 

“And do snakes eat dust, Miss Har- 
son ?” asked Clara. 

“Yes; a naturalist says: ‘That the 
snake actually swallows much dust when 
feeding, I have frequently observed. His 
head being of necessity on the ground, 
when he gorges an animal caught on the 
ground the dust would naturally adhere 
to the prey as it was being gulped down.’ 
There are many other places in the Bible,” 
added Miss Harson, “ where serpents are 


WITHOUT ANY FEET 


339 


mentioned, for they are very common pests 
in those hot Eastern countries.” 

“There were serpents that bit the Israel- 
ites once,” said Malcolm. 

“Yes,” replied Miss Harson, “and do you 
remember how the people were cured?” 

“ Moses put up a brazen serpent on a 
high pole, and they looked at that and 
were healed,” said Malcolm. 

“You remember, also,” said the gover- 
ness, “ that Jesus used this manner of cure 
to explain the way he would save sinners. 
In the third chapter of John’s Gospel, and 
fourteenth and fifteenth verses, we find his 
words. He said, * As Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
Son of man be lifted up ; that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but 
have eternal life.’ This Old-Testament 
story always points us to the cross of our 
Saviour.” 

“ Isn’t there a story about Paul being bit- 
ten by a serpent and shaking it off?” in- 
quired Malcolm. 

“Yes,” replied Miss Harson; “I am 
glad you recall this. St. Paul was ship- 


340 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

wrecked on the shore of the island of 
Malta ; when he carried a bundle of 
sticks to throw on the fire the men had 
kindled, a viper came out from among the 
fagots and fastened on his hand. He was 



PAUL AND THE VIPER. 


under Christ’s protection, however, and he 
shook the venomous reptile into the fire, 
and was unharmed by its bite.” 


CHAPTER XVII. 


SLOW AND SURE : TURTLES AND TORTOISES. 


HAT kind of creatures are turtles 



and tortoises ?” asked Malcolm. 


“ Thomas says that there are snapping-tur- 
tles in the pond, and they can’t be fishes or 
snakes or lizards ; so what do you call them, 
Miss Harson ?” 

“ ‘ Shielded reptiles ’ is the name given 
them by naturalists. They belong to the or- 
der of Chelonia, which name is from a Greek 
word meaning 4 tortoise.’ Their hard shells, 
formed of horny plates, are described as 
consisting of floor and roof and side-walls. 
We will see what one of our naturalists 
says of them : 4 These animals, to which a 
portable stronghold is thus given in com- 
pensation for inferior powers of locomotion 
and defence, are recognizable at a glance, 
from the singular armor with which Nature 
has provided them. A double shield envel- 


341 



342 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. . 

ops all parts of their bodies, permitting 
only the head, the neck, the legs and the 
tail to pass through it. Moreover, all 


FRESH-WATER TURTLES. 

these organs can be hidden within this 
double cuirass by means of a retractile ’ — 
or drawing-back — ‘ power possessed by the 
animal. This double armor consists of a 
carapace, or back-piece, and plastron, or 
breast-plate, composed of a series of small 


SLOW AND SURE. 


343 


bones or plates closely united together.’ 
Some of these plates are remarkably beau- 
tiful and are known as tortoise-shell, of 
which so many useful and ornamental 
articles are made.” 

“There are tortoise-shell cats too,” said 
Edith; “old Mrs. Mint has one.” 

Now, what were they all laughing at 
again ? she wondered. But laugh they 
did ; for, as Clara said, it sounded just as 
if cats were made of tortoise- shell. 

“Never mind, dear,” said Miss Harson, 
kindly ; “ we know what you meant, and 
that even tortoise-shell cats haven’t shells, 
for they do not need them ; but 

* The tortoise securely from danger does well 
When he tucks up his head and his tail in his shell.’ 


There are a great many different kinds of 
tortoises and turtles : there are land-turtles 
and water- turtles, and the snapping-turtle 
belongs to the latter species, being found 
in ponds and rivers. When these * snappers ’ 
seize their victim or defend themselves, they 
dart out their head and long neck with great 
rapidity, biting sharply with their beak and 


344 LITTLE neighbors at elmridge. 

holding on till they have bitten out the piece. 
Persons wading have been known to lose 
toes from their bite.” 

“What horrid things!” said Clara.' 
“ They’re worse than snakes.” 

“ Not quite so bad as rattlesnakes,” re- 
plied her brother, “ for turtles don’t really 
kill people. Do they lay eggs, Miss Har- 
son ?” 

“Yes ; the water-turtles lay great quan- 
tities of eggs in the sand, which they scoop 
out for this purpose. On the Amazon 
River these eggs are dug out by the natives 
because of the oil which they yield.” 

“And don’t people make soup out of 
turtles?” asked Malcolm. 

“Yes,” replied his governess ; “the green 
turtle, whose flesh is celebrated for its deli- 
cacy and the excellence of its fat, is that 
from which turtle soup is made. It also 
furnishes very pretty tortoise-shell, but the 
handsomest comes from the hawk’s-bill 
turtle, which is found in the Indian Ocean 
and on the American shores. ‘ Of all the 
reptiles, the sea-tortoise is the most useful 
to man. In countries where they are com- 


SLOW AND SURE. 


345 


mon, and where they attain an enormous 
size, their flesh is healthy and nourishing- 
food, and their carapace, or roof-shell, when 
very large, serves as a canoe, in which the 



THE GREEN TURTLE. 


natives paddle along the shores. They 
even roof their huts with them ; they con- 
vert them into drinking-troughs for their 
cattle, and into baths for their children. 
The fat of many species, when fresh, is 
used as a substitute for oil and butter, 
and the eggs of nearly all the turtles are 
sought after for food.’ ” 

“ Isn’t it the land-tortoises that are so 
slow ?” asked Clara, who was thinking of 
the hare and the tortoise. 


346 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

“Yes; they are very slow, and very 
amusing when they are kept in gardens. 
An English naturalist, Gilbert White of 
Selborne, gives quite an account of an old 
tortoise which he dug out of its winter 
quarters in the ground in March, and 
awakened it sufficiently to make its objec- 
tions by hissing ; but he packed it in a box 
with earth and carried it eighty miles in 
post-chaises, or what we would call stages. 
The rattle and hurry of the journey waked 
it up so thoroughly that when it was turned 
out on a flower-bed it walked down to the 
bottom of the garden. In the evening, find- 
ing it too cold for comfort above ground, it 
buried itself in the loose mould, and would 
not appear again until the weather was 
warmer. Besides spending at least five 
months of the year under ground, this 
tortoise would sleep during a great part 
of the summer; for it went to bed on the 
longest days at four in the afternoon, and 
did not stir in the morning till quite late. 
Then it would retire at every shower, and 
it did not move at all on wet days.” 

“ I should think,” said Malcolm, “ that a 


SLOW AND SURE. 347 

tortoise needn’t be afraid of rain, with such 
an umbrella as he carries on his back.” 

“ It does seem so,” replied his governess, 
“and yet the owner of this tortoise says: 
‘Though it has a shell that would secure it 
against the wheel of a cart, yet does it dis- 
cover as much solicitude about rain as a 
lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling 
away on the first sprinkling and running 
its head up in a corner.’ It seems that he 
did not like the hot sun any better, as his 
thick shell, if once heated, would be likely 
to roast him alive ; so he spent the sultry 
hours under the umbrella of a large cab- 
bage-leaf or amidst the waving forests of an 
asparagus-bed.” 

“ How nice that sounds !” said Clara, 
meaning “ the waving forests.” “ I sup- 
pose it would seem like woods to him.” 

“ On the first of November the old tor- 
toise began to die out the ground for its 
winter-quarters, and its owner watched it 
with great interest. ‘ It scrapes out the 
ground,’ said he, ‘with its fore feet, and 
throws it up over its back with its hind ; 
but the motion of its legs is ridiculously 


348 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

slow, little exceeding the hour-hand of a 
clock. Nothing can be more assiduous 
than this creature, night and day, in scoop- 
ing the earth and forcing its great body 
into the cavity, but on warm and sunny 
noons it is continually interrupted and 
called forth by the heat.’ ” 

“Is there a story?” asked Edith, in de- 
light, as she saw Miss Harson turning over 
the leaves. 

“You may call it so,” was the smiling 
reply. “ It is supposed to be a letter from 
a tortoise, who was named ‘ Timothy,’ giv- 
ing his account of a journey of eighty miles 
in a box, and also of his other trials. It was 
written to a lady, who must have been sur- 
prised at it.” 

THE TORTOISE’S LETTER. 

“ Most Respected Lady : Know that I 
am an American and was born in the year 
1734, in the province of Virginia, in the 
midst of a savannah that lay between a 
large tobacco-plantation and a creek of 
the sea. Here I spent my youthful days 
among my relations with much satisfaction, 


SLOW AND SURE. 


349 


and saw around me many venerable kins- 
men who attained to ereat ages. Longev- 
ity is so general among our species that a 
funeral is quite a rare occurrence. 

“ Happy should I have been in the en- 
joyment of my native climate and the soci- 
ety of my friends, had not a sea-boy who 
was wandering about to see what he could 
pick up surprised me as I was sunning my- 
self under a bank, and, whipping me into 
his wallet, carried me aboard his ship. We 
had a short voyage, and came to anchor on 
the coast of England, in the harbor of Chi- 
chester. In that city my kidnapper sold 
me for half a crown to a country-gentle- 
man who came up to attend an election. 
I was immediately packed in a basket and 
carried, slung by the servant’s side, to their 
place of abode. As they rode very hard 
for forty miles, I found myself somewhat 
giddy with my airy jaunt. 

“ My purchaser, who was a great humor- 
ist, after showing me to some of his neigh- 
bors and giving me the name of ‘ Timothy,’ 
took little further notice of me ; so I fell 
under the care of his lady, a benevolent 


350 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELM RIDGE. 

woman whose humane attention extended 
to the meanest of her retainers. With this 
gentlewoman I remained almost forty years. 
At last the good old lady died at a very 
advanced age — such as even a tortoise 
would call a great age — and I became the 
property of her nephew. 

“ This man, my present master, dug me 
out of my winter retreat, and, packing me 
in a deal box, jumbled me eighty miles in a 
post-chaise to my present abode. I was 
sore shaken by this expedition, which was 
the worst journey I ever experienced. In 
my present situation I enjoy many advan- 
tages — such as the range of an extensive 
garden, affording a variety of sun and 
shade, and abounding in lettuces, poppies, 
kidney-beans and other delectable herbs 
and plants. But still at times I miss my 
good old mistress, whose grave and regular 
deportment suited best with my disposition ; 
for you must know that my present master 
is what men call a naturalist and is much 
visited by people of that turn, who often put 
him on whimsical experiments, such as feel- 
ing my pulse, putting me in a tub of water 


SLOW AND SURE. 


351 


to try if I can swim, etc. And twice in the 
year I am carried to the grocer’s to be 
weighed, that it may be seen how much I 
am wasted during the months of my absti- 
nence, and how much I gain by feasting 
during summer. Upon these occasions I 
am placed in the scale, on my back, where 
I sprawl about, to the great diversion of the 
shopkeeper’s children. 

“These are some of my grievances, but 
they sit very lightly on me in comparison 
with what remains behind. Know, then, 
tender-hearted lady, that my great mis- 
fortune, and what I have never divulged to 
any one before, is the want of society with 
my own kind. It was in the month of May 
last that I resolved to elope from my place 
of confinement, for my fancy had repre- 
sented to me that probably many agreeable 
tortoises might inhabit the heights of Ba- 
ker’s Hill or the extensive plains of the 
neighboring meadow, both of which I could 
discern from the terrace. One sunny morn- 
ing I watched my opportunity, found the 
wicket open, eluded the vigilance of the 
gardener, and escaped into the saint-foin, 


352 LITTLE NEIGHBORS AT ELMRIDGE. 

which began to be in bloom, and thence to 
the beans. I was missing eight days, wan- 
dering in the wilderness of sweets and ex- 
ploring the meadow at times. But my 
pains were all to no purpose : I could find 
no society such as I sought for. I there- 
fore came forth at night and surrendered 
myself up to Thomas, who had been incon- 
solable in my absence. 

“ Thus, madam, have I given you a faith- 
ful account of my satisfactions and sorrows, 
the latter of which are mostly uppermost. 
You are a lady, I understand, of much sen- 
sibility : let me, therefore, make my case 
your own in the following manner, and 
then you will judge of my feelings: Sup- 
pose you were to be kidnapped away to- 
morrow, in the bloom of your life, to a land 
of tortoises, and were never again to see 
a human face for fifty years ? Think on 
this, dear lady, and pity your sorrowful 
reptile, Timothy.” 


the END. 













